R.I.P. Gordon Lightfoot

[Big Magilla]

Sweet indeed. Thanks for sharing.

[Mister Tee]

Sweet after-note.

https://twitter.com/JimLNeibaur/status/ ... 3678914561

[danfrank]

“Legendary” is a bridge too far in my mind, but he was certainly a significant popular artist in his time, and with staying power. If You Could Read My Mind still gets airplay 50+ year later and Tee is right, I sing along knowing every word.

[Big Magilla]

In my mind he reached legendary status with "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", his six-minute plus folk ballad that defied top ten hit logic. It went to number one in Canada but stopped at number two in the U.S. six years after he peaked with "If You Could Read My Mind".

[Mister Tee]

Well, legendary is certainly thrown around promiscuously these days -- it generally means "was famous in my youth, and has hung around a long time". I'm not sure Lightfoot merits the term quite as much as, recent example, Belafonte.

But...he was already revered as songwriter for "Early Morning Rain" and "For Lovin' Me", and then burst into the mainstream as soloist with "If You Could Read My Mind" -- a song pretty much anyone my age can sing note for note. "Sundown" and "Carefree Highway" were also widely popular, and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" gave him another major hit.

So, if you were around in the late 60s/early 70s, he was a significant part of the soundtrack of your life. Not a legend, maybe, but not nothing.

[Okri]

As a Canadian, he definitely loomed large.

[Sonic Youth]

The legendary Canadian folksinger was 84.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment ... 070ab&ei=2

I must confess, until today I had no idea he was considered “legendary”. I know a few boomers who were nearly in tears about this.

[Big Magilla]

The legendary Canadian folksinger was 84.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment ... 070ab&ei=2