You’d know who just died, at age 84.

But I know he’d want me to stay on my carefree highway!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYuF99VTEdg

You should have given Dave a heads up!

Lightfoot had a lot of hits. Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is the one I most associate with him, and I have sailed on Lake Superior, and experienced more than a few gales of November, so that one strikes a chord.

But far and away my favorite is the Canadian Railroad Trilogy. I think of it as Canada's substitute national anthem, like America the Beautiful is ours.

Canada is the only nation I can think of that was formed not as the result of a war, but created by their transcontinental railroad. British Columbia said they would only join the confederation of eastern Canada built a railroad to BC.

The land north of Lake Superior is muskeg and granite - not that hilly, but alternating granite and swamp is hard to build on. And the Canadian Rockies make the southern Wyoming route the UP took look like a walk in Central Park. It was a serious challenge, and it literally made the country. BC could well have joined the US.

Whoever added the video to this song did a bang-up job. It opens and closes with a train whistle, and lots of train shots in between, so Dave should be impressed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O_qxJAmW4c

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You should have given Dave a heads up!

....and it literally made the
> country. BC could well have joined the US.
>

54º 40' is the latitude of the southern tip of Alaska, so that whole 54º40' or fight thing was a desire for the US to control the entire west coast from California to the Arctic. It could have happened.

Canada is just as complicit in colonialism as the USA, and Europe.

Lightfoot would have agreed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2023 09:08PM by unconventional.

I'm glad I can't read your mind!

One of my favorites. I was able to see him in concert 4 times. Canadian Railroad trilogy was my first exposure to his music, won me over is about 5 notes.

Mine too. Sorry that mellow voice is now silenced.

I've got to say that I just don't get it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2023 12:10AM by bradley.

It's one of his biggest hits Bradley. Those of us that are really old know :) Beautiful song, he was a true story teller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiU2lrGnT7U

ooof!  You just face-planted, Susan!

"And I've got say I just don't get it..." is a key line in the captioned song!!

Typical top-drawer response from El Bradley de Las Lomas de Chapultepec!

My favorite was Sundown.

naughty girl.

I wouldn't need to be here!

I loved watching this film in 2019, BC (before COVID)!

Check it out. Buy it. Rent it. WATCH IT!

I think my favorite song of Lightfoot's was "Carefree Highway." I was told in grade school (when I sang all the time--even when I was not supposed to) that that song was the closest vocally I ever got to sounding like its singer (and my voice hadn't changed yet.)

Interestingly, from what I've heard and read, Lightfoot's inspiration for the song came from actually traveling on the Carefree Highway--an approximately 30-mile road that took one from the desert town of Scottsdale, Arizona, to Carefree, a much smaller town at the base of the mountains north of both Scottsdale and Phoenix. At the time Mr. Lightfoot rode on this highway, it was all desert and flat. Today, the highway still exists, but it is marked with residences and businesses and even signals between the two cities.

RIP Gordon Lightfoot! You both entertained and enlightened us all!

my heart break. I saw him in concert a few years ago. He looked ancient then. He joked "the rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated" He had been very ill and some outlets were reporting him dead. Played his heart out that night. When he started "If you could read my mind" the audience erupted.

Gordon Lightfoot wrote the songbook of my life. His music helped me grieve the loss of my wife. It may have saved my life. I went to a very dark place after she died and the joy he brought to me was a blessing. His position at the pinnacle of the songwriter world cannot be overstated. I am so thankful I got to see him perform once.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2023 11:45PM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

So many Lightfoot songs I loved. Canadian Railroad Trilogy for sure, Sundown, Edmond Fitzgerald... and so many others.

I think the one I love most is Song For a Winter's Night. I've spent half my life looking out of my windows at snow. It hasn't always brought me joy, especially those many mornings I shovelled the driveway before work. But it's part of my Canadian soul, and that song captures the feeling of being safely wrapped up in my warm cosy house while the snow falls through the night. The driveway is tomorrow's problem.

Every time I see this thread title and realize it was written by Jesus, a shiver runs down my spine.

"I'll Tag Along" is a Gordon Lightfoot song I rediscovered after my wife died. It's one of those incredible tunes that seemed to be written just for me. It brought me to tears and helped me heal.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2023 01:51AM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

I was 14 when I heard his songs on the country radio AM station. When I got my first stereo at Radio Shack and a crappy record changer, I bought the 2 Lp set, GORD'S GOLD, and wore it out and "ringed" the album cover. My dad would freak out when "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" played; the guitar solo sounded like a ship breaking up and going under. He was a WW2 vet in the South Pacific.

Before he signed with Warner/Reprise in 1970, his songs on United Artists got covered by country artists, notably Marty Robbins having a hit with "Ribbon of Darkness," and several hits by George Morgan (Lori Morgan's father).

"The Last Time I Saw Her Face" is the most beautiful love song I've ever heard.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2023 03:59AM by snagglepuss.

snagglepuss Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "The Last Time I Saw Her Face" is the most
> beautiful love song I've ever heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNAQMDs_Beg


I also like "The First Time Ever I Saw Her Face" :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8_fLu2yrP4



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2023 03:32PM by Nightingale.

I can imagine the wholesome, but raw, emotion of Gladys looking into the mirror, singing, “The First Time Ever I Saw My Face!”

Tears, every time!!

This always reminds me of summer camp in the north woods of Minnesota

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=fP3n_U7G2CY