Gordon Lightfoot

I was listening to some Gordon Lightfoot while sweating at the gym today and I got to thinking about the lyric. I can get lost in his words. Lightfoot is still performing occasionally at age 74 and I wish I could see him once again before, well, I can’t. But no matter - I’ll be listening to and singing his songs until, well, I can’t.

I’ve always loved his songs. In the days when I was singing for tips – with Bill and with Vala and with Mike G. and solo at various times – I always had Lightfoot songs in the mix. His lyrics are so human and it felt like he was speaking directly to my life.  For example, anyone who has found themselves still longing for a lost love will be moved by the opening stanza from I’m Not Supposed to Care:

I think you have somebody waiting outside in the rain to take you away
You got places to go, you got people to see, still I'm gonna miss you
But anyway
I wish you good spaces in the faraway places you go
If it rains or it snows may you be safe and warm and never grow old
And if you need somebody some time, you know I will always be there
I'll do it although I'm not supposed to care.

He wrote If You Could Read My Mind when his marriage was breaking up but even if you didn’t know that, the song sings just to you. Old Dan’s Record’s can’t fail to put one in mind of family good times. Canadian Railroad Trilogy brilliantly captured the timbre of the Canadian Centennial and a whole country embraced it as its own.

A Minor Ballad is one of the shortest and perhaps one of the most touching love songs ever written in English. I believe I’ve sung it a thousand times and it never gets old. Other faves include Crossroads, Your Love’s Return (Song For Stephen Foster), Did She Mention My Name, (In The) Early Morning Rain, Ribbon of Darkness, the list goes on and on.

I love singing Pussywillows, Cattails simple because it feels so good to sing it. Race Among the Ruins and  Rich Man’s Spiritual  are great up songs to balance out the heart renders like That Same Old Obsession.

I don’t go to concerts a lot – not a fan of long lines and big crowds and half the time you can’t hear the musician, anyway. But I’ve been to a half dozen of Lightfoot’s over the years. And once through an odd happenstance I sat next to him at someone else’s gig that we both attended. Wish I had a cool story for that one but I’m not into doing the drooling fan thing (okay, okay, there might have been drool involved but my heart was in my throat and I could hardly bring myself to look – what of it?) so we basically just exchanged pleasantries. Nice enough guy, it seemed.

I could have him to dinner I think except what would we say? He’s said things in his songs that are so perfect, they need no further discussion. The back story is in most cases revealed in the lyric. Such as in Song For A Winter’s Night:

The lamp is burnin' low upon my table top
The snow is softly fallin'
The air is still within the silence of my room
I hear your voice softly callin'

If I could only have you near
To breathe a sigh or two
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
Upon this winter night with you

I don’t care to explore Lightfoot’s personal life. I suppose he’s had his foibles. But at the end of the day, he’s spoken to me in a way that illuminated some of the best and worst times in my own life.  I hope each and all of you will take the opportunity to come to know at least some of his songs.