Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023)

Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023) by Ron Wells

Gordon Lightfoot songs came to me the same way so many singer/songwriter’s songs came when I was young: through Peter, Paul and Mary who just had a knack for picking great songs written by great songwriters, and I always looked at their albums to see who the writers were. 

I was late getting to Gordon Lightfoot, but when I heard “Early Morning Rain” and “For Lovin’ Me,” I was hooked. Oh, perhaps I didn’t like him as much as I liked Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen, but so many of Lightfoot’s songs still burned into my soul. He just had a way of saying what I felt at a particular moment in my life, and yet years later, those songs still resonate.

It seems everyone has his or her own favorite Gordon Lightfoot song, but I certainly was swept away by “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown,” and “Rainy Day People.” For many people, it was “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” To be honest, there were just so many wonderful songs, each carrying a magical moment that connected to me and so many others.

Do yourself a favor and listen to one of the many songs I’ve listed here, or any others you might know. Listen to them sung by Gordon or the many other performers who covered his songs. It will be time well spent. And you will understand the simple pleasures and profound power of Gordon Lightfoot songs.

In His Own Words, Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr.:

• “Let our hearts touch far horizons.
  Let our love know no borders,
  Draw the Circles wide until,
  No one stands alone.“
• “I’m a little nuts. I’m a lot nuts. All I know is that in the midst of the madness of this world it’s my therapy. The music touches my heartstrings.”
• “Rainy day people all know there’s no sorrow they can’t rise above.”
• “There is always something wrong with a song, you can’t be perfect.”
• “Everything is trust, all the rest is dust.”
• “Whitecaps in profusion all around me, but somehow in your eyes I found the strength to sail upon that raging sea.”
• “I love jazz. I still do. Dave Brubeck and Stan Getz are so good.”
• “You just get the vibes of your surroundings and it rubs off on you.”
• “I try to keep it light and positive most of the time, whereas earlier on I didn’t always do that.
• ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ is a different experience every time I sing it. It’s just that kind of a song.
• I never believed – or knew for sure – if I would be able to make a professional life in music. But it turned out that way. 
• A lot of people influenced me as I was learning, but probably Bing Crosby was the most influential because I would hear his Christmas albums, which my parents played a lot.
• I have just a really strong love for people when I perform. I really do.

• Robbie Robertson of the Band described Lightfoot as “a national treasure”.^[9]
• Bob Dylan, also a Lightfoot fan, called him one of his favourite songwriters and said, “I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like. Every time I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever…. Lightfoot became a mentor for a long time. I think he probably still is to this day”.^[10][11]