PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Gordon Lightfoot has died

https://youtu.be/D5EOHTb1Ajo

His impact on the music world is immeasurable!
One of the all-time greats!

What a brilliant singer-songwriter, what a voice and what sad news.

If You Could Read My Mind
Early Morning Rain
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
And so many more.

I've had a Lightfoot Pandora station for years.

May your highways be forever carefree Gordon . . . thanks.

This first one was very dear to me as it was a big part of my teenage angist years.

And the second was just a wonderful example of song telling via music.

Gordon may have died but is songs will live forever.

RIP Gordon.

This one hurts deep.

There we were in my 67 Chevy Chevelle rust-bucket, with 3 on the tree and the muffler held together with Campbell bean cans and wire coat hangers. And more radiator stop-leak than antifreeze. My high school sweetie snuggled up nice and close and 2 or 3 friends in the back seat.

And we had Gordon on the AM radio. We saw him as a friend and a great companion with many a sing-along.

Carefree Highway indeed . . .

Very sad, another great leaves the stage for the last time. He left a legacy of sensational music.

I think it's pretty amazing the environment his songs created to deliver such powerful messages. His gift was a true gift to the world.

Plus, I love Edmund Fitzgerald's voice.

Sad news to hear, and of course we should spare a thought for our late forum member Don as well, who covered Gordon lightfoot's song Steel Rail blues, and help him in high regard.

This has been stuck in my head from the first day I heard it while fixing jukeboxes, awesome lyrics:

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
T'was the witch of November come stealin'
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin'
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'
"Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya"
At seven PM, a main hatchway caved in, he said
"Fellas, it's been good to know ya"
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the maritime sailors' cathedral
The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.

A tribute

There's a really good documentary called Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind. Well worth watching. What a writer, what a voice and what a performer.

I had forgotten how all round great he really was.