RIP Gordon Lightfoot

[Dave F]

Canadian folk music icon Gordon Lightfoot dead at 84 | CBC News

[Dave F]

 

[E-minor7]

May Peace be with him ✮ Never forget hearing Sundown first time over the radio. 

                                                                                                                                                                       Luckily young me sat ready by the cassette machine. 

[QuestionMark]

May his memory be a blessing.

 

QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff

[PrairieSchooner]

Gordon's the reason I went through 2-3 B-45-12's; once got a gig just because I was playing one and the club owner was a big GL fan.  RIP Gordon, and thanks for it all.

[AnneS]

Ach…I’m sad. Race Among the Ruins and The House You Live In are always candidates on any set list.m of mine.

Lord, but he left us with some fine, fine stuff. Gord was indeed Gold. RIP.

[Murph]

He was a lucky guy to make it to 84 being a musician from his era.  And he did what he loved for a living. And it was a pretty good living for many decades, I'm sure.

A heckuva lot of us never made his kind of money, nor lived half that long.

Well done, I say.

 

[j45nick]

What a talent. What a loss to us all.

But we still have his music, forever.

[zombywoof]

I recall when Godon released his first LP.   Oddly back then you were more likely to hear somebody else's version of a song like "Early Morning Rain" on the radio than Gordon's.  But a life well lived which left us some wonderous music.

[62burst]

Rest easy, Gordon.

A young co-worker from Canada told me that when in grade school, his class had to give a performance of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And learn all of the lyrics. Possibly more of a story (a history) than a song, that fateful day.

We’ll be doing Early Morning Rain this Saturday night, that is for sure. Thanks for the song, Gord . . . and thanks for the music.

[J185cat]

I can hear that iconic voice in my head right now. That’s when you know someone was the real deal for me.

[jdgm]

R.I.P.  A great artist and songwriter.  The real deal, as you say.

I was fortunate to see him in the mid 70s on a UK tour.

[rustystrings]

What a gift he had.  What a gift he was!  I grew up with his music always in the background.  A few years back, when I started getting serious about really studying songwriting, I took a deep dive into his catalog and was smitten.  I can only imagine how much work it must have taken to trim and tailor every word and every note to where everything was just exactly right and enough like that.  It sounds so effortless, and it is anything but!

We listened to "Sundown," "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," and "If You Could Read My Mind" on the drive in today to take my kids to school.  My 14-year-old daughter was smitten by the long ballad and was shocked and amused that it had been on the charts on the radio - a song like that is totally alien now.  She also declared herself a Lightfoot fan after that, so I pointed her towards his catalog, as well as this video -

- I still can't decide what I like best about this breakdown - the choice of a perfect song, perfectly written, played, arranged and recorded; the explanation of HOW it works in language even the musically illiterate such as I can follow; or Beato's sheer joy and enthusiasm for a stunning piece of music.

[dhanners623]

A mark of a great songwriter is they can ignore convention and you never notice because the song is just so good. Lightfoot’s “Carefree Highway” is an example.

Of the three verses, only the second has two lines that rhyme. The third line of the first verse has an internal rhyme (Ann/damned) and the chorus has two lines that rhyme, and they’re in the middle of the chorus. Nothing rhymes in the third verse.

The song made it to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. It spent a week at No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart in October 1974.

[j45nick]

24 minutes ago, rustystrings said:

What a gift he had.  What a gift he was!  I grew up with his music always in the background.  A few years back, when I started getting serious about really studying songwriting, I took a deep dive into his catalog and was smitten.  I can only imagine how much work it must have taken to trim and tailor every word and every note to where everything was just exactly right and enough like that.  It sounds so effortless, and it is anything but!

We listened to "Sundown," "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," and "If You Could Read My Mind" on the drive in today to take my kids to school.  My 14-year-old daughter was smitten by the long ballad and was shocked and amused that it had been on the charts on the radio - a song like that is totally alien now.  She also declared herself a Lightfoot fan after that, so I pointed her towards his catalog, as well as this video -

- I still can't decide what I like best about this breakdown - the choice of a perfect song, perfectly written, played, arranged and recorded; the explanation of HOW it works in language even the musically illiterate such as I can follow; or Beato's sheer joy and enthusiasm for a stunning piece of music.

If you want to learn how to really listen to and analyze popular music, it's hard to beat Rick Beato. His enthusiasm is infectious.

[kelly campbell]

Thanks for all the great music GL!  RI.P.  truely a unique talent.

[northcntryblues]

https://youtu.be/NjoU1Qkeizs

 

RIP to the chronicler of some of the history of our country.

Edited May 3, 2023 by northcntryblues

[Cabarone]

I feel like I did when John Prine died

They were both huge influences on my playing/writing from day one 'til the end

Both left behind huge bodies of work

Both had the gift of turning a phrase that was uniquely their own

When their last albums came out, I felt the same about both of them. That, God forbid, that was their final release it would be the perfect capper to their career

Both had to come off the road, succumbing to medical conditions

As the posters proclaimed on Lightfoot's tours the last few years, "The Legend Lives On"...

[michaelsegui]

On 5/2/2023 at 9:30 AM, 62burst said:

Rest easy, Gordon.

A young co-worker from Canada told me that when in grade school, his class had to give a performance of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And learn all of the lyrics. Possibly more of a story (a history) than a song, that fateful day.

We’ll be doing Early Morning Rain this Saturday night, that is for sure. Thanks for the song, Gord . . . and thanks for the music.

We did that too when I was in grade 6 and it was the 10th anniversary of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

I grew up in SW Ontario. 

[michaelsegui]

I always wanted to see him play at Massey Hall (the House of Gord) but when I was a young student living in Toronto I could never afford it or I had an exam etc…

 

In the fall of 2021 my wife and I went when he reopened Massey Hall after it had been closed for renovations for a number of years.  It turned out we saw him on his very last MH show.  I think it was the 172nd time he played there.

[fortyearspickn]

Saw him in Hartford, CT in the '80s.  Memorable. 

[livemusic]

On 5/2/2023 at 6:05 AM, Murph said:

He was a lucky guy to make it to 84 being a musician from his era.  And he did what he loved for a living. And it was a pretty good living for many decades, I'm sure.

A heckuva lot of us never made his kind of money, nor lived half that long.

Well done, I say.

 

I think you said it well. Since his death, I have pondered pretty much what you said. He loved what he did. Knew his human frailties. Had some less redeeming moments like we all have but always admitted it and regretted it. He was a lucky man and knew it, that is what I like. GL was an excellent songwriter, toward the top. That has to be immensely gratifying. To know that you will sell out most any theater even towards the end, that is amazing.

[Murph]

11 hours ago, livemusic said:

I think you said it well. Since his death, I have pondered pretty much what you said. 

Thanks.

Being a successful musician from that era had its dangers. Heck, even back in Hank's era.

To hone your craft requires many thousands of hours in smoky (in those days) barrooms full of unsavory types. Selling alcohol is the point of the job. I was playing in bars when I was 12, and getting paid for it at 16. I've always said being a musician is the only job where you are not only ALLOWED to drink on the job. It's EXPECTED.

Add drugs to the mix, wild women and relationships, fistfights and the occasional gunfight and it's a rough place to make a living.

Damned few of us make it to 84, especially with his level of success.

[E-minor7]

10 hours ago, Murph said:

Thanks.

Being a successful musician from that era had its dangers. Heck, even back in Hank's era.

To hone your craft requires many thousands of hours in smoky (in those days) barrooms full of unsavory types. Selling alcohol is the point of the job. I was playing in bars when I was 12, and getting paid for it at 16. I've always said being a musician is the only job where you are not only ALLOWED to drink on the job. It's EXPECTED.

Add drugs to the mix, wild women and relationships, fistfights and the occasional gunfight and it's a rough place to make a living.

Damned few of us make it to 84, especially with his level of success.

You have a point. I recall going from the back stage room to the third set around midnite and trying to pass a party of 3-4 raw fishermen types. The quite big club was full.                                                           When squeezing my black-dyed-haired make-up-faced self through a slim gab, the guy sitting opposite told his friend on the chair I tried to pass : Knock him down. .                                                                                                                                                                           A quite fiery starter for that burning 45 minutes final. 

 

 

                                                                                       

 

Ouh, , , btw. another fellow at the men's room that same night simply called me jew. 

This happened in a bigger town in the provins. Normally people were nice - out there too, , , in fact lovely. .