Greatly Exaggerated

[filkertom]

The Intertubes were a-Twitter this morning with rumors about the death of Canadian folk music legend Gordon Lightfoot. It even made it to the mainstream press.

Tain't so. Gordon's fine.

What are your favorite Lightfoot songs? There are all the obvious ones -- it's not like the guy's not a hit machine -- but I've got a huge warm spot in my heart for "Don Quixote".

(Dammit, I just listened to that performance again, and I'm tearing up. Sometime, it's not gonna be a rumor, and that will hurt. Stay well, Mr. Lightfoot.)

Comments

[ebenbrooks.livejournal.com]

"Sit Down Young Stranger" is one of my favorites. Also "If You Could Read My Mind" and "The Pony Man".

The problem is limiting myself to only a few...

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Sit Down Young Stranger really is good, isn't it?

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

I love "If You Could Read My Mind", "Sundown" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Yeah, the obvious ones.

On a related note, I saw him in concert many years ago. Good musician.

[ororo.livejournal.com]

as above without the cool seeing him in concert part. Man he's got a great voice.

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

I'd have to say, hands down, my favorite of his works would be The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgI8bta-7aw)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

This. I remember when it came out - I was a kid - but had no idea it was a true story until a few years ago, so haunting was the performance - sounded like a ghost story, not a true tale ballad.

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy!

[wood-dragon.livejournal.com]

I love Song for a Winter's Night. And I'm very glad to hear he's still with us. Very.

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

The first I heard was the squashing of the rumor. (I'm not sure that's spelled right for my neck of the woods) I was so shocked I had to pull over to listen. Our local talk show actually had him on the radio saying "I'm alive and well" My personal fave. . . Pussywillows Cattails. Of the top of my head. Squidjiggin' comes to mind, but I'm not 100% sure that's Lightfoot.

He is BTW a really nice man. I got to have supper with him once when I was about 15, him and Richard Bachman, I didn't actually eat much, but they were both really nice.

[ebenbrooks.livejournal.com]

Oh, goodness, I'd totally forgotten about "Pussywillows, Cattails" until you mentioned it. Yeah...damn, that's one good song.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! You were already awesome, but have just been knocked up a few notches on the 'Awesome People' list. Nobody EVER says 'Don Quixote'! Which is in a close running for my favourite with 'Alberta Bound', because my family would sing them all the time in the car going on road trips. It was back in the early 80s, and we had a '65 Chevy pickup that was the most uncomfortable thing in the world and didn't have any kind of tape deck or anything, so we had this huge boom box plugged into the cigarette lighter and balanced on mine and my sister's laps as we're squished into the middle of the bench seat. It was awesome.

Also I had not heard the rumour yet so I'm glad I saw it here first, as I would be very sad if he were actually dead.

[ldyerzsie.livejournal.com]

My mother had a few of his albums. The FIRST song that ever "spoke" to me was Don Quixote. And in "spoke to me" I mean that the lyrics MEANT something and resonated deeply within the part of me that makes me who I am. The only other singer to do that was India.Ari.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

"Don Quixote" was the first Lightfoot song to catch my ear, and remains a favorite. I also like his specifically Canadian songs, especially "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" and "Alberta Bound". You can throw in "Steel Rail Blues" and the shiver-inducing "Pride of Man", too.

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

Of course Canadian Railroad Trilogy, what a song. Alberta Bound. Oh I have to go listen to songs now.

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

I missed this in all the news from Texas (I used to live in Austin, but on the other end of town) but I'm still glad to hear this was only a rumor.

I'm partial to "The Canadian Railroad Trilogy," but there's an ironic medley on Gord's Gold that I like -- "(That's What You Get) For Loving Me" followed immediately by "Did She Mention My Name."

[ttamsen.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. Just about everything from about '77 on back. Along with John Denver, Joni Mitchell and CSN, he's the biggest part of the soundtrack of my youth.

I couldn't pick a favourite on a bet, but I can often be caught singing Seven Island Suite and the Watchman's Gone. And Carefree Highway is *awful* but I love it anyways. :-)

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

When The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald shown up at our radio station in October, 1976, I had the privilege of taking it out of the package from the record company and put it on the air that day. Now WHGR, Houghton Lake, MI was no powerhouse station in the music tracking biz, but I was excited about American history, Michigan history being sung about by a major artist on a major label. Some background, my older brother served on Great Lakes cargo ships back in 1969, and I was spotting them every now and then when I was up at Michigan Technological University. Might have even spotted the Edmund Fitzgerald back then. It when on to be the #1 song across America on the first anniversary of the tragedy. Here (http://www.ssefo.com/remembrances/song.html) is a bit of that history.

Do any of you know of any other song since then to be of a true American historical event that made the Top 40 after that? I could not think of any. And I had in mind when I was first hearing filk, as here was other American history being presented in song, even if it did not make the hit charts.

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

If there is one I would guess that it would be something about 9/11, and probably only if you count the country charts.

Gordon Lightfoot

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

My absolutely favorite Gordon Lightfoot album is *Cold on the Shoulder,* with a lot of dynamite songs, and I'm surprised to note that nobody has mentioned any of them. I am thinking "Slide On Over," "Cherokee Bend," "The Soul is the Rock," "Rainbow Trout," and there are several I'm missing. I do not like the title cut one bit. And off other albums, is it called "Somewhere, U.S.A.," and another called "High and Dry"? And off the *Summertime Dream* album, I seem to recall the last song (although it may be the last song on side one) is "Never Too Late." All wonderful and I'm a bit surprised that I'm the first person to mention any of these.

Nate

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Well, the two super-hits, "If You Could Read My Mind" and "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", of course.

"The Pony Man" and "Did She Mention My Name", and "Black Day in July" because I remember watching the news and wondering if the riots would get to us. (They didn't, but there were burned-out blocks only a couple of miles away.)

I'm a little more ambivalent about Lightfoot now than I used to be; when I was putting his stuff onto the iPod, I was startled by how much of it was bad-boy songs like "(That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me", about men who are damned overt about being assholes toward women. But the good songs are still good, and he's still got one of the best voices in commercial music.

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

As people say, I do have too many favorites to come up with just a few. Here are some that I really like, but which I haven't seen mentioned yet: Race Among the Ruins, Your Love's Return (Song For Stephen Foster), and Cotton Jenny.

[angel-vixen.livejournal.com]

I grew up listening to his music, and had the pleasure this summer of returning the favor to my mother, when we went to his concert. Even though he was recuperating from being sick, he was still magnetic (also, given the venue, I was surprised when the crowd was not unlike one at OVFF: singing along, calling out song-requests between numbers and the standard "I LOVE YOU!! MARRY ME!!" from at least one starstruck fan). I can't pick just one of his songs, but "Sundown" (which made a young me want to learn how to play guitar) and "Rainy Day Lovers" are often earworms, and I love "Minstrel of the Dawn." When it's years from now, and Mom passes on, I'll sing "Minstrel of the Dawn" and "Rainy Day Lovers" for her service.

AngelVixen :-)

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Minstrel is in my second five.

Lightfoot

[mclain143.livejournal.com]

Don Quixote, Christian Island, Looking at the Rain, Rainy Day People.
A gazillion more. Gordon Lightfoot & Barry McGuire are my two biggest inspirations to sing and write.
I'll echo you: Stay well, Mr. Lightfoot.

Casey

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Approaching Lavender. The Ponyman (filk if there ever was one). Don Quixote (one of the first songs I learned on guitar)

I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of right now.

[capplor.livejournal.com]

Lately I've had Canadian Railroad trilogy as an earworm. But I've always loved Old Dan's Records.

[cernowain.livejournal.com]

No doubt the rumors got started when he was not a part of the Olympics Opening Ceremony. I'm hoping that he'll be at the closing.

My favorite of GL's?

I get a kick out of listening to "Old Dan's Records". Ev'ry time.

As for playing on the guitar, I enjoy playing "If You Could Read My Mind" in the key of A major (instead of in G with capo to 2nd fret). I'd be glad to show it to you sometime.

I saw GL play live in Springfield, IL around 1992. My date didn't show but I went anyway, and I am so glad I did.

blessed be,

Cern

[otterblossom.livejournal.com]

"Pussywillows, Cattails" is by far my favorite. Though "Early Morning Rain" is pretty high up there too.

[djonn]

I too am very partial to "Don Quixote" and "Pony Man" and "Edmund Fitzgerald", but there's one long-standing favorite of mine that has not been mentioned: "Ghosts of Cape Horn", bth for the lyric and for the quality-of-rhythm in it.

"Ghosts of Cape Horn" is also the one Lightfoot song whose tune I've borrowed for a filk lyric; the song in question arose out of the media fuss some years ago now over a little boy named Elian from Cuba, who'd been brought to the US by one parent and whom the other parent, still in Cuba, was demanding back. (I'm almost sure I'm oversimplifying the details, but that was the gist of it.)

[catnip13.livejournal.com]

"Old Dan's Records," "Circle of Steel," "Early Morning Rain," and "Minstrel of the Dawn," I think.

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

I was introduced to his music by a canadian girlfriend, possibly the only good thing to come out of that relationship.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

"The Patriot's Dream" made me cry as a teen.

I also loved "Songs the Minstrel Sang," his Robin Hood song, if only for the effect he did with the speakers in stereo ("...and when the Sheriff was there.." on Left, switching to "...he was over here!" on the Right).

[roman-mclaze.livejournal.com]

I love "Did She Mention My Name", and "Minstrel of the Dawn".

Tim O'Brien and Bill Staines both do magnificent covers of "Early Morning Rain". Really, I never get tired of finding new versions of it.

Moxy Früvous's one-minute "Gord's Gold" is a wonderfully spot on (and genuinely affectionate!) parody of his style and his voice.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]