Another obit- Gordon Lightfoot

[OLDSTER]

Always a big Lightfoot fan. I was at his concert on a riverboat casino at St. Louis around 2002. He looked like walking death, but his voice was as good as when He recorded The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. My favorite is Rainy Day People. I couldn't imagine he'd live this long.---RIP

 

[bovw]

Not unexpected but still hate to hear this. Saw him for the last of five times a little over a year ago. He was frail and the voice was gone, but the crowd loved him anyway.

A giant among prolific songwriters. Talent and drive that made everything else in his life take a back seat until he was well up in age and gained a different perspective that many of us attain with age and hard experience.


Like I said, not unexpected, but he's one I shall miss greatly. Thankfully his body of work will survive him and be enjoyed for a long time to come.

We saw him again last year as well, figuring it would be the last.

 

[glowe]

The bell still rings 29 times all across towns from Duluth Minnesota to Sault Ste. Marie Michigan every November 10th. In a little over 2 years it will be the 50th Anniversary of the tragedy.

 

[jughed440]

Sad news. R.I.P., Gordon

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2JV0vVuKCY"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2JV0vVuKCY[/ame]

 

[JohnRippert]

Sundown has always been my favorite of his. Some splendid guitar work on that one.

 

[quikdraw67]

Sundown and Edmund Fitzgerald.

The former I can say I lived that.

The latter is a haunting song.

 

[snowman]

He left his mark, that's for sure, and now a big hole. This brings back some fond memories; my youngest sister and I affectionately called him Gordon Heavyhand -probably my doing due to my lifelong fascination with what could be done with English words in order to amuse myself.

From what little I understand he was known to be a gentleman as well as a talent, and I have no reason to doubt it. My memory may be faulty here, but it seems I read somewhere that prior to releasing the song about the Fitzgerald he first contacted a number of surviving family members of the crew to ask them how they felt about it. But you may want to look that up if you're interested in getting more accurate details. That song I'm sure did more than anything to keep alive the memory of the tragedy for those of us who weren't close to the people involved.

My favorite single of his probably was "If You Could Read My Mind", largely because of the contribution of the string section of the studio musicians to the arrangement. They add tremendously to the sense of sadness Lightfoot was trying to convey in the lyrics. You might give it a listen and see what you think.

Oh well -I'll wrap this bit of nostalgia up. Time to be jolted back into my current reality.

Regards,
Andy

 

[Golddollar]

From growing up in the Great Lakes region "The Wreck of the Edmunds Fitzgerald" has a special meaning for me. Watching the ore boats on Lake Erie was one of my dad's favorite pasttimes.

The Great Lakes Brewing Company came up with a tribute beer in their line called "Edmund Fitzgerald Porter."

 

[oldbrownhat]

...The Great Lakes Brewing Company came up with a tribute beer in their line called "Edmund Fitzgerald Porter."

"Robust and complex, our Porter is a bittersweet tribute to the legendary freighter's fallen crew—taken too soon when the gales of November came early."

I'll drink to that

 

[Golddollar]

"Robust and complex, our Porter is a bittersweet tribute to the legendary freighter's fallen crew—taken too soon when the gales of November came early."

I'll drink to that

It's a great beer. Only problem right now is my medical providers have me on the wagon.

 

[oldbrownhat]

How 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' Defied Top 40 Logic

Gift NYT article here.


Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 folk ballad told the true story of a shipwreck on Lake Superior. One of his old friends called it "a documentarian's song."

"..."The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," his 1976 folk ballad, was unusual partly because, at more than six minutes long, it was about twice as long as most pop hits. It also retold a real-life tragedy...

... The morning after the Fitzgerald went down, the rector of Mariners' Church of Detroit tolled its bell 29 times, once for each man lost. An Associated Press reporter knocked on the church's door, interviewed the rector and filed an account that was published in newspapers.

Mr. Lightfoot read the article. Soon afterward, he started singing a song about the wreck during a previously scheduled recording session...

There was no expectation that the song would become a hit single, because its length made it too long for airplay on the radio....

...Yet unlike songs that use a real-life story as the basis for embellishment, Mr. Lightfoot's ballad hewed precisely to the real-life details. The weight of the ore, for example — "26,000 tons more than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty" — was accurate. So was the number of times that the church bell chimed in Detroit.

Decades later, Mr. Lightfoot changed the lyrics slightly after investigations into the accident revealed that waves, not crew error, had led to the shipwreck. In the new lyrics, he sang that it got dark at 7 that November night on Lake Superior — not that a main hatchway caved in...​

 

[old bear]

May he rest in peace.