Taken from "Gordon Lightfoot Live In Reno" DVD. Recorded April, 2000.
"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a 1976 song written, composed and performed by Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot to memorialize the sinking of the bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgeraldin Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Lightfoot considered this song to be his finest work.
The ballad chronicles the final voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald as it succumbed to a massive late-season storm and sank in Lake Superior with the loss of all 29 crewmen. Lightfoot drew inspiration from news reports he gathered in the immediate aftermath, particularly "The Cruelest Month", published in Newsweek magazine's November 24, 1975, issue. Lightfoot's passion for sailing on the Great Lakes informs his verses throughout.
The single hit number 1 in his native Canada on November 20, 1976, barely a year after the disaster. In the United States, it reached number 1 on Cashbox 's ranking and number 2 for two weeks in the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Someone posted this on Facebook and it struck me. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Lightfoot but this is a towering song about a relevant event and that is what folk song is all about
Canadian folk music icon Gordon Lightfoot, whose evocative and poetic songs are etched into the musical landscape of Canada, has died at the age of 84, according to his longtime publicist Victoria Lord. Lord says Lightfoot died at a Toronto hospital on May 1. The cause of death was not immediately available.
Born in Orillia, Ontario, Lightfoot was hailed as Canada’s folk troubadour for his soulful music and stirring lyrics. In songs such as The Canadian Railroad Trilogy and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, he explored the country’s history, geography and culture. “He is our poet laureate, he is our iconic singer-songwriter,” said Rush singer Geddy Lee in the 2019 documentary Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind. “If there was a Mt Rushmore in Canada, Gordon would be on it,” said Tom Cochrane, in that same documentary.
After earning accolades at home in the late 1960s, Canada’s troubadour broke through internationally in the 1970s after signing with Warner Records in the US, making a splash at the start of that decade with the release of the single If You Could Read My Mind, now a folk standard. Lightfoot followed that up, over the next six years, with what became many of his best-known songs, such as Beautiful, Sundown, Don Quixote, Carefree Highway, Rainy Day People and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. - cbc.ca
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Big O says:
GORDON LIGHTFOOT Cleveland 1965 [no label, 1CD] Live at La Cave, Cleveland, Ohio; May 8, 1965. Very good soundboard? Some hiss.
Track 01. Early Morning Rain 3:31 Track 02. Sixteen Miles 3:22 Track 03. Get Together 3:13 Track 04. Echoes Of Heroes 5:23 Track 05. Long River 3:48 Track 06. Song Of The Groundhog 2:21 Track 07. Turn, Turn, Turn 3:45 Track 08. The Auctioneer 3:12 Track 09. Ribbon Of Darkness (attempt 1) 1:44 Track 10. Nova Scotia Farewell 3:23 Track 11. Ribbon Of Darkness (attempt 2) 2:58 Track 12. Gossip Calypso 2:29 Track 13. The Way I Feel 3:42 Track 14. Steel Rail Blues 3:17 Track 15. For Lovin’ Me 2:13 49 mins
Before the likes of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor elevated singer-songwriters into superstars, musicians such as Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Croce and even John Denver were seen as folk, country or even pop acts. And here you have Gordon Lightfoot with a protest song, Echoes Of Heroes, that was written probably in 1963 with the Vietnam War in mind. And that was long before If You Could Read My Mind, Sundown, Carefree Highway and Rainy Day People.
Thanks to the person who shared these tracks on the net in 2005.
Notes to the show:
Possibly the earliest live recordings of Gordon Lightfoot as a solo artist, this was recorded around the time he recorded his first full album on United Artists Records which was released in January 1966. These recordings were released split in two, incomplete at the now very hard to find bootleg albums “Yellow Bird” and “Get Together” on Koala Records. Lightfoot sounds a bit nervous sometimes and even forgot some of his lyrics on the first attempt of Ribbon Of Darkness. The overal sound quality is very good for an old recording like this and it’s great to hear these songs from his first and, in my opinion, best record he made.
A Dylan favourite from back in the day, I often found his work a tad sentimental but this came up last night as it was used in soundtrack for the new series set in Australia with Jamie (50 Shades!) Dornan. who previously I had rather thought couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag cast rather for his searing good looks but is rather good in this . . . . . . . . . . BBCThe Tourist
Oooops got my Lightfoot song wrong . . . .still it goes someway to have to play another and this was the one used at the closing credits of Episode 3
Sunday, June 30, 2019
GORDON LIGHTFOOT
'SUNDOWN'
Sounds like a narrow escape to me! We never really 'got' Lightfoot over and the vagaries of fickle taste seems to be why some guys make it and others don't. Why Dylan and not Lightfoot? Well were I less generous I might put it down to the volume of talent and that Lightfoot was always destined to be top forty rather than top ten but hey. Just my opinion. This is fine and pleasant enough but the song lyrics bely the 'easy listening' melody for me. It would seem it is along the lines of vaguely draped attack on the 'devil woman' theme. There but for Belushi? Never but NEVER inject anyone with anything is a rule I find handy
On this day in music history: June 29, 1974 - “Sundown” by Gordon Lightfoot hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 1 week, also topping the Adult Contemporary chart for 2 weeks on June 8, 1974. Written by Gordon Lightfoot, it is the biggest hit for the Canadian born folk rock singer, songwriter and musician. The title track of his tenth album, the song is written about Lightfoot’s painful break up from former girlfriend Cathy Evelyn Smith, who later becomes infamous as the woman who kills comedian John Belushi in March of 1982, by injecting him with and accidentally overdosing him with a speed ball (a combination of heroin and cocaine). “Sundown” re-establishes Lightfoot in the US charts some three years after he scored his first hit with “If You Could Read My Mind”, having been sidelined in 1972 by a bout of Bell’s Palsy, partially paralyzing part of his face. Released as a single in late February of 1974, it becomes a hit on AC radio before crossing over to the pop Top 40. Entering the Hot 100 at #83 on April 13, 1974, it climbs to the top of the chart eleven weeks later. The huge success of “Sundown”, also propels the accompanying album (of the same name) to the top of the Billboard Top 200 for two weeks beginning on June 22, 1974. “Sundown” is certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.
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Saturday, June 30, 2018
No I didn't get this and Lightfoot didn't really 'travel' well I don't think. It may have been No. 1 on the Billboard chart but I don't think it charted here at all. (Didn't even make the Top Thirty I don't think) This is an interesting and fairly innocuous sounding song and I feel that about most of his stuff but it is of interest and value for sure [Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson really rated him as songwriter and Bobby even is quoted as saying 'Every time you hear a Gordon Lightfoot song, you don't want it to end') but the note about Cathy and her overdosing Belushi with a shot of 'speedball' is revealing . . . . . . sometimes we have lucky escapes, sometimes we don't . . . . . .
On this day in music history: June 29, 1974 - “Sundown” by Gordon Lightfoot hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 1 week, also topping the Adult Contemporary chart for 2 weeks on June 8, 1974. Written by Gordon Lightfoot, it is the biggest hit for the Canadian born folk rock singer, songwriter and musician. The title track of his tenth album, the song is written about Lightfoot’s painful break up from former girlfriend Cathy Evelyn Smith, who later becomes infamous as the woman who kills comedian John Belushi in March of 1982, by injecting him with and accidentally overdosing him with a speed ball (a combination of heroin and cocaine). “Sundown” re-establishes Lightfoot in the US charts some three years after he scored his first hit with “If You Could Read My Mind”, having been sidelined in 1972 by a bout of Bell’s Palsy, partially paralyzing part of his face. Released as a single in late February of 1974, it becomes a hit on AC radio before crossing over to the pop Top 40. Entering the Hot 100 at #83 on April 13, 1974, it climbs to the top of the chart eleven weeks later. The huge success of “Sundown”, also propels the accompanying album (of the same name) to the top of the Billboard Top 200 for two weeks beginning on June 22, 1974. “Sundown” is certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.
