Remembering Gordon Lightfoot

He will always be the one who led-off a star-studded line-up performing a beautiful song to raise money for famine relief.

It said a great deal to me that Gordon Lightfoot was the first voice we heard on “Tears Are Not Enough”, ahead of Burton Cummings, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Dan Hill, Corey Hart, Bryan Adams and so many others.

At that time, I did not know as much about Gordon Lightfoot as I do now, but I still have some odd memories of him and his music.

I was thinking about that a few weeks ago when I heard Gordon Lightfoot had died.

He was 84 years old.

The years before
Gordon Lightfoot was already a household name when I started listening to music in 1984. He was just a part of the fabric of Canadian music and culture. I cannot recall any time I was introduced to him. He was always there.

The songs I first heard, largely because Canadian content requirements meant a healthy helping of legends such as Lightfoot, included “Carefree Highway”; “Sundown”; “If You Could Read My Mind”; and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”.

Poetry in motion
The first time I recall talking about Gordon Lightfoot was actually in language arts class at St. Joseph’s School in Coaldale. It was either Grade 7 or 8. The reason I cannot narrow it down further was because my home room was the same for both grades, and so was my teacher – Mr. Terry Roth.

When we studied our poetry unit, Mr. Roth gave us this poem about a boat called “The Golden Vanity”. He talked about how song lyrics were just poems, and played a song called “The Golden Vanity” that was essentially the poem set to music.

He also played another song with the theme of sinking the “Turkish Reverie” to illustrate how different artists could interpret poetry differently.

That led into a discussion of poets who were story tellers, and Mr. Roth described Gordon Lightfoot as a poet and story teller. I recall hearing two selections by Lightfoot. One was “Pussy Willows, Cat Tails” and the phrase, “shivering, quivering” in particular. The other song was “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” as a classic example of a poem telling a story.

Solid Gold sound
Once I started listening to music, in addition to the radio, I started watching shows such as “Video Hits”, “Switchback”, and “Solid Gold”.

Unlike most shows, which played music videos, “Solid Gold” had a countdown but welcomed singers and bands performing live on the show.

One Saturday night, I recall Gordon Lightfoot. Everything I had heard about him at the time led me to believe he was a folk singer type with jeans and an acoustic guitar. This was not the case. He was dressed a little more trendy. What really struck me was the electric guitar he played, which did not feel like folk music at all.

I remember that more than the song he played because, by the 1980s, he was not turning out any more radio hits. I don’t recall ever hearing new Gordon Lightfoot music on the radio throughout the time I listened.

Northern Lights
The world was profoundly affected in the latter part of 1984 by the horrifying pictures coming out of Africa and the famine that was wreaking devastation. Musicians, starting with Irish performer Bob Geldof, started raising money for this famine relief by creating these groups of artists who banded together for a single, powerful song. Geldof and Midge Uhr started the trend with an effort called “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” in December of 1984.

A few months later, in early 1985, USA for Africa formed producing “We Are the World”. Included on that album was a song that will forever be stamped on my heart.

It was called “Tears Are Not Enough”, which was uniquely Canadian, and had an actual call to action. It was Canadian in that it had both English and French singers, every major band and performer of the past 20 years in Canada, and footage was included on the video from that year’s NHL all-star game with the players singing “Tears Are Not Enough”.

Leading off that song and, really, setting the tone was Gordon Lightfoot.

His words echo in my ears as I type this – “As every day goes by, how can we close our eyes?”

That was my true introduction to the magic of Gordon Lightfoot.

The years after
As the years went on, and we began to honour the past, and music became more accessible, I heard Gordon Lightfoot, and really began to appreciate how talented a story teller he was.

Following Gordon Lightfoot on “Tears Are Not Enough” was Burton Cummings. It was cool, because I always associated the two. I later discovered they were actually friends too. So much so that when I bought Cummings’ “Up Close and Alone” tape in he summer of 1996, it had a song that makes me laugh every time I hear it.

Cummings calls it, “If Rod Stewart was Gordon Lightfoot’s favourite singer.” In it, Cummings does an imimtation of what he thinks Lightfoot would sound like singing Rod Stewart’s Maggie Mae.

It is one of the funniest things I have ever heard.

Parting thoughts
One of the best things about getting older is to reflect on the things in life. One of those things for me is the music of Gordon Lightfoot. When he died, I found a greatest hits compilation on YouTube and just let it play all day while I worked.

The familiar songs struck a chord because they reminded me of the artist himself.

The songs I had never heard before really moved me, because they all told a story, had this lyrical quality, and evoked vivid images.

I remembered this quote from Bob Dylan, cited often right after Lightfoot died.

Bob Dylan said he never heard a Gordon Lightfoot song that he didn’t like. They were all good.

That was high praise from one of the greatest singers and song writers in history.

I have to agree with him.