RIP Gordon Lightfoot:

[JJFN]

I was sorry to see that Gordon had passed away. Another folk icon gone. Probably my favorite song of his, is, the not so well known That's What You Get For Loving Me. Peter Paul and Mary did a wonderful cover of that song. But he wrote so many great songs, that it is difficult to choose one.

 

[anthonyg]

Sad to hear. I'm a huge fan of Gordon Lightfoot.
I have 16 Gordon Lightfoot songs in my repertoire.
I'll have to sing them all tomorrow.

 

[Joyful Uke]

I've got the album Tony Rice sings Gordon Lightfoot playing right now. 2 greats who have now passed on.

 

[DelGriff]

One of my fave songs of all time:

 

[Patty]

Such an eloquent and sensitive composer and player. I love that voice. And I too really admired “That’s What You Get for Loving Me.”

And I think “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is a truly great song. It has the beat of an epic poem.

 

[Patty]

One of my fave songs of all time:

Gorgeous tribute, @DelGriff. I have a lump in my throat. Simply beautiful. Endings can be really hard to take. Gordon said it all.

 

[Farkvam]

As a Canadian I feel like this was a great loss to “Canadiana.” I also like that song “That’s What You Get For Loving Me,” in addition to a lot of his early material from the 60s. My favourite is “Steel Rail Blues.” Those songs were well before my time but I never was good at following the musical trends of my own age group anyway.

I was fortunate to see him perform live about ten years ago, and wandered around in his posse afterwards as it was a small concert. It was fun.

 

[Patty]

As a Canadian I feel like this was a great loss to “Canadiana.”

Nice to imagine him and Leonard Cohen jamming in the great hereafter.

 

[Stoneyrun]

Rest in peace Gordon. Sundown.

 

[Canada Jim]

I was sorry to see that Gordon had passed away. Another folk icon gone. Probably my favorite song of his, is, the not so well known That's What You Get For Loving Me. Peter Paul and Mary did a wonderful cove of that song. But he wrote so many great songs, that it is difficult to choose one.

Gordon dropped the song That's What You Get For Loving Me from his repertoire years ago. He stated that it was, "The most chauvinistic song I ever wrote."

Excerpted from a conversation between Mike Sacks and Gordon Lightfoot, Vanity Fair:

One of my favorite songs of yours is a song that you’ve since said is misogynistic, “For Loving Me.” [Sample lyric: “That’s what you get for lovin’ me. I ain’t the kind to hang around, with any new love that I found, ’cause movin’ is my stock in trade, I’m movin’ on. I won’t think of you when I’m gone.”]
Oh my goodness, yeah. That’s a bad one.
Johnny Cash sang it, Dylan sang it. To me, it was sort of like a country song about a gunslinger walking through town and [boasting], “Look at me!” Why do you discount that song now?
I was married at the time, and it was a damn poor song to write when you’re married to somebody.
I learned a lesson from that, because after I sang that song for a while, I asked myself, ‘What am I saying?!’ Even long after I was divorced and separated and she’d gone her way and I’d gone mine, I would sing this song and think, Geez. How did you she ever put up with this?! I stopped singing it.

 

[Canada Jim]

Nice to imagine him and Leonard Cohen jamming in the great hereafter.

Canada's Three Gords are now re-united.

Gord Downey, Gord Lightfoot & Gord Pinsent

 

[Farkvam]

Gordon dropped the song That's What You Get For Loving Me from his repertoire years ago. He stated that it was, "The most chauvinistic song I ever wrote."

Excerpted from a conversation between Mike Sacks and Gordon Lightfoot, Vanity Fair:

One of my favorite songs of yours is a song that you’ve since said is misogynistic, “For Loving Me.” [Sample lyric: “That’s what you get for lovin’ me. I ain’t the kind to hang around, with any new love that I found, ’cause movin’ is my stock in trade, I’m movin’ on. I won’t think of you when I’m gone.”]

Oh my goodness, yeah. That’s a bad one.
Johnny Cash sang it, Dylan sang it. To me, it was sort of like a country song about a gunslinger walking through town and [boasting], “Look at me!” Why do you discount that song now?
I was married at the time, and it was a damn poor song to write when you’re married to somebody.
I learned a lesson from that, because after I sang that song for a while, I asked myself, ‘What am I saying?!’ Even long after I was divorced and separated and she’d gone her way and I’d gone mine, I would sing this song and think, Geez. How did you she ever put up with this?! I stopped singing it.

That’s interesting, I always liked the song musically but never delved into the lyrics.

There are some songs like that for me, where I appreciate the music or even learn it on the uke but don’t sing it because I don’t appreciate the lyrics. I recently learned a bit of chord melody for “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry, such a fun sound! But let’s just say the lyrics have not aged well...so I don’t sing along

 

[Canada Jim]

That’s interesting, I always liked the song musically but never delved into the lyrics.

There are some songs like that for me, where I appreciate the music or even learn it on the uke but don’t sing it because I don’t appreciate the lyrics. I recently learned a bit of chord melody for “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry, such a fun sound! But let’s just say the lyrics have not aged well...so I don’t sing along

Unlike Gordon, I always figure that I'm playing a part when I sing a song.
I do a lot of murder ballads and they seldom make the protagonist seem like an admirable person, but I don't feel like i'm condoning the bad behavior. I'm just playing a part and I'm usually hanged or sent to prison in the last verse.

 

[TimWilson]

There are too many great ones to pick a "favorite", but one I keep coming back to is "Summer Side of Life". He was very clear that it wasn't one of his favorites, and he didn't think it held up at all on stage, and like a lot of artists talking about their own songs, could not possibly be more wrong. I wanted to shake him and say, HAVE YOU LISTENED TO IT YOU GOOFBALL? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Maybe it hit me so hard because I was a teenager when I heard it, just a couple of years too young to go to Vietnam, but seeing its detritus all around me. Friends and brothers of friends who didn't come back at all, including some who may have returned in body, but hardly soul. I'd gotten a sense that there's no such thing as surviving war, not really, and Gordon paints an especially powerful image in the lyrics that he'd slightly tweaked after recording, an extra line here, an extra verse there, to emphasize that this beautiful young man, beloved by all the lasses, was truly heroic in nature ("he came down to save us all"), but returned from war beyond broken: “and if you saw him now, you’d wonder why he would cry the whole day long” -- the "why" stretched out to fill an entire line by itself.

I'm not sure he ever dug as deep as this, and for all his kvetching about it not holding up to live performance, I think it got even better. I offer as evidence this 1972 performance on the BBC, and will let it speak for itself.



When I thought back to how Gordon sounded in this stretch of his career, I realized that an awful lot of it was colored in by Red Shea on guitar. Red loved Gordon, loved playing with him, but hated the road. Something had to give, and I admire Red for doing what he had to do, leaving Gordon's company to just stay put -- harder than it sounds, and few musicians can make it work. It's a shame that the creative drive extracts the price it does, and I cheer for everyone who can find their way off the wheel.

 

[Canada Jim]

While Red Shea will always be linked to Gord Lightfoot's sound, I loved the picking of a teenaged David Rea backing Gord, Joni Anderson (Mitchell) and Ian & Sylvia, as well as his solo work when he lived in Toronto.

 

[ploverwing]

And I think “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is a truly great song. It has the beat of an epic poem.

CBC were playing that yesterday afternoon for remembrance. It's a great piece.

 

[Jan D]

Like many of my fellow Canadians, I have been a Gordon Lightfoot fan since my teens. His concerts (at least the ones that I attended) were always outstanding ~ true musical journeys. Much of his music resides in my record collection. When I am in the mood to sing, it is Gordon’s music that frequently ends up on my record player. Picking a favorite song would be impossible, because I have so many. But if it comes down to which one I have probably played the most, it has to be this one ~ the title song from his Don Quixote album.

 

[anthonyg]

For Gordon,



The Minstral of the Dawn is gone.

 

[RayF]

It's hard for me to listen to a Gordon Lightfoot song without singing along. So many great ones. My favorite is "Old Dan's Records". He wrote all his own music and lyrics, what a talent. Saw him live in Milwaukee back in 1974 (boy, that was a long time ago!) What I remember most is that he moved from song to song, didn't talk much, just singing and playing. I still listen to him often.

 

[Canada Jim]

Gord wrote hundreds of great songs and the writers he chose to cover were pretty great as well: LeRoy Van Dyke, Ian Tyson, Bob Dylan, Shel Silverstein, Kris Kristofferson. . .