I drove into Orillia, Ontario in the summer 1990 on the second long road trip of my North American odyssey and saw the City of Orillia sign (population 27000) it proclaimed proudly "Orillia Home of Gordon Lightfoot."
(picture credit unknown)I allowed myself a wry smile for the Canadian troubadour known worldwide for his hits 'If you could read my mind' and 'Sundown'. Orillia and Canada are rightly proud of this song-writing genius. He wrote many songs over his long career and the two mentioned are the ones most will remember hearing. There are many others. His songs caught the mood of those late sixties early seventies singer songwriter times with their beautiful melodies and lyrical turns.
His death at the age 84 robs the world of a master tunesmith but what a legacy he leaves. Over a run of albums from his debut 'Lightfoot!' in 1966 through the 1970s and 1980s he established a reputation as a songwriters songwriter with his songs covered by Elvis, Bob Dylan and many others. In 1976 he had a hit with a song named 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' a song about the tragic sinking of an ore freighter in Lake Superior. It was an unlikely hit being longer than the radio standard but caught contemporary interest in the tragedy and told the story of the victims.
The outpouring of emotion on his death from across the world and especially the music world in Canada and beyond illustrates the reach that he had, how familiar people are with his music and how his songs connected to people. That is the testament to a great artist.
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