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, its 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 subjects 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 Lightfoots songcraft, still waters run deep, or at least deeper than youd expect for someone who became branded
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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.
Might be a short concert. He didnt have a boatload of hits.
I love Carefree Highway.
Just like a paperback novel, the kind that the bookstores sell
I think my favorites other than “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” were “Whispers Of The North” and “Protocol. “
Happy birthday, Mr. Lightfoot.
“Canadian Railroad Trilogy” is a good (very) old one too; Lightfoot performed it live at the Grey Cup finals a few years ago IIRC.
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.
Happy birthday Gordon Lightfoot
I worked with a girl who went to his concert back in the day. I dont remember her telling me it was particularly short.
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.
All these years I thought it was “drugstores.”
The male Anne Murray.
Nice story......
He has always been one of my favorites.
Look six posts above this one...
He had a lot of hit songs. I saw him in concert in 1995.
Obviously, it’s a matter of taste which cannot be argued. For my taste, he’s no Led Zeppelin.
Bookmark
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