Beloved Canadian Singer-Songwriter Dead at 84

Gordon Lightfoot had just last month canceled planned shows
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 2, 2023 3:00 AM CDT
Gordon Lightfoot Dead at 84
Gordon Lightfoot poses for a photo as he attends "LIGHTHEADED: A Gordon Lightfoot State of Mind" at The Eglinton Grand in Toronto, March 17, 2022.   (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Gordon Lightfoot, Canada's legendary folk singer-songwriter known for “If You Could Read My Mind" and "Sundown” and for songs that told tales of Canadian identity, died on Monday. He was 84. Representative Victoria Lord said the musician died at a Toronto hospital, the AP reports. His cause of death was not immediately available. Considered one of the most renowned voices to emerge from Toronto’s Yorkville folk club scene in the 1960s, Lightfoot went on to record 20 studio albums and pen hundreds of songs, including “Carefree Highway," “Early Morning Rain,” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

In the 1970s, Lightfoot garnered five Grammy nominations, three platinum records, and nine gold records for albums and singles. In the more than 60 years since he launched his career, he performed in well over 1,500 concerts and recorded 500 songs. He toured late into his life. Just last month he canceled upcoming US and Canadian shows, citing health issues. Once called a “rare talent” by Bob Dylan, dozens of artists have covered his work, including Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Harry Belafonte, Johnny Cash, Anne Murray, Jane’s Addiction, and Sarah McLachlan. Lightfoot’s music had a style all its own. “It’s not country, not folk, not rock,” he said in a 2000 interview. Yet it has strains of all three.

“We have lost one of our greatest singer-songwriters,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted. “Gordon Lightfoot captured our country’s spirit in his music—and in doing so, he helped shape Canada’s soundscape. May his music continue to inspire future generations, and may his legacy live on forever.” Most of his songs are deeply autobiographical with lyrics that probe his own experiences in a frank manner and explore issues surrounding the Canadian national identity. During his career, Lightfoot collected 12 Juno Awards, including one in 1970 when it was called the Gold Leaf. In 1986, he was inducted into the Canadian Recording Industry Hall of Fame, now the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. He received the Governor General’s award in 1997 and was ushered into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.

(More Gordon Lightfoot stories.)

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