Sundown (Official Video)
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.
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Beautiful live . . . . .
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