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If You Could Read Gordon Lightfoot’s Mind, This Is the Tale His Thoughts Could Tell
Washington Post ^ | November 2 | Don McLeese

Posted on 11/17/2017 5:13:14 PM PST by nickcarraway

If you could read his mind, what a tale his thoughts could tell. So claimed Gordon Lightfoot in his 1970 breakout hit, the song that would launch his career as one of the most consistently satisfying singer-songwriters of the decade and would subsequently be recorded by some 300 other artists.

There was a lot of musical confession in those days, with James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell and so many others wearing their hearts on their lyric sleeves. Yet Lightfoot generally kept his mind to himself. A reserved Canadian, he played his emotional cards comparatively close to his vest, rarely granting interviews and rarely saying much when he did. Even in live performance, he came across as a tight-lipped stoic, the troubadour as rugged northwoodsman.

So, it’s a revelation here to find Lightfoot opening up at all. Not surprisingly, the biographer to whom he has confided is a fellow Canadian, veteran music journalist Nicholas Jennings, who enjoyed his subject’s full cooperation. Not that this is a kiss-and-tell book. But, regrets, he has a few, and Lightfoot airs them. He has paid a price for keeping his feelings to himself, for letting his career consume his private life, for drinking himself numb. It took him three marriages and assorted relationships (at least one of them borderline toxic) to give him a sense of how to be a husband and a father.

We learn that the smooth surface of his signature sound belies the turbulence that has inspired some of his most memorable material, such as the enigmatic “Sundown” (an obsessive jealousy corrodes the soul) and even “If You Could Read My Mind” (a beguiling melody that finds a marriage on the rocks). In Lightfoot’s songcraft, still waters run deep, or at least deeper than you’d expect for someone who became branded

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: gordonlightfoot; ifyoucouldreadmymind; lightfoot
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Today is Lightfoot's birthday.
1 posted on 11/17/2017 5:13:14 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

One of my favorite performers growing up. His iconic “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” captures the tragedy like no other.

Would love to see him in concert.


2 posted on 11/17/2017 5:25:24 PM PST by offduty
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To: offduty

Might be a short concert. He didn’t have a boatload of hits.


3 posted on 11/17/2017 5:27:03 PM PST by gubamyster
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To: nickcarraway

I love Carefree Highway.


4 posted on 11/17/2017 5:29:18 PM PST by GnuThere
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To: nickcarraway

Just like a paperback novel, the kind that the bookstores sell


5 posted on 11/17/2017 5:35:31 PM PST by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
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To: gubamyster
He did have a boatload of excellent tunes though.

I think my favorites other than “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” were “Whispers Of The North” and “Protocol. “

6 posted on 11/17/2017 5:41:03 PM PST by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
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To: nickcarraway

Happy birthday, Mr. Lightfoot.


7 posted on 11/17/2017 5:50:31 PM PST by ConservaTeen (Islam is Not the Religion of Peace, but The religion of Pedophilia...)
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To: MrEdd

“Canadian Railroad Trilogy” is a good (very) old one too; Lightfoot performed it live at the Grey Cup finals a few years ago IIRC.


8 posted on 11/17/2017 5:53:04 PM PST by PermaRag (If Trayvon had a father, he'd look just like Obama)
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To: nickcarraway

My dad was a Gordon Lightfoot fan. When he died, one of the few possessions he had saved was a GL cassette.

The day after he died, “Carefree Highway” came on the radio and it encapsulated my feelings perfectly at that moment.


9 posted on 11/17/2017 5:55:34 PM PST by Skooz (Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
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To: nickcarraway

Happy birthday Gordon Lightfoot


10 posted on 11/17/2017 5:58:42 PM PST by PGalt
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To: gubamyster

I worked with a girl who went to his concert back in the day. I don’t remember her telling me it was particularly short.


11 posted on 11/17/2017 5:58:48 PM PST by FrdmLvr (“What Happened you ask?...Ma’am, you got your ass kicked.” Bannon)
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To: gubamyster

He may not have had the commercial success (number of charted hits) that his contempories had, but his songs were truly stories from his soul and I’d rather listen to him than artists from today.


12 posted on 11/17/2017 5:59:55 PM PST by offduty
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To: tumblindice

All these years I thought it was “drugstores.”


13 posted on 11/17/2017 6:00:18 PM PST by clintonh8r (I've been banned from TheHill.com. #Proud)
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To: nickcarraway

The male Anne Murray.


14 posted on 11/17/2017 6:00:53 PM PST by KosmicKitty (Waiting for inspiration)
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To: Skooz

Nice story......


15 posted on 11/17/2017 6:02:35 PM PST by clintonh8r (I've been banned from TheHill.com. #Proud)
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To: nickcarraway

He has always been one of my favorites.


16 posted on 11/17/2017 6:08:02 PM PST by Califreak (Take Me Back To Constantinople)
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To: offduty

Look six posts above this one...


17 posted on 11/17/2017 6:11:14 PM PST by Captainpaintball (Keep Your Friends Close And Enemies Closer? That's what the left is doing with TRUMP!!!)
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To: gubamyster

He had a lot of hit songs. I saw him in concert in 1995.


18 posted on 11/17/2017 6:11:49 PM PST by willk (everyone)
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To: offduty

Obviously, it’s a matter of taste which cannot be argued. For my taste, he’s no Led Zeppelin.


19 posted on 11/17/2017 6:12:19 PM PST by gubamyster
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To: nickcarraway

Bookmark


20 posted on 11/17/2017 6:12:45 PM PST by Southside_Chicago_Republican (If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.)
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