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...

[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.

[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)

[ororo.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

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

[ebenbrooks.livejournal.com]

One of his best, in my opinion.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I've had so many favourites over the years it's been hard to pin one down. That was my favourite in high school, when I made a poster out of the lyrics.

[ebenbrooks.livejournal.com]

I saw him in concert, too, but I was so young I hardly remember it. I think I might have been 4, or maybe 3...

[ebenbrooks.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool!

[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]

Yeah. It wasn't a very good poster, but I remember thinking myself quite artistic. ;)

[ebenbrooks.livejournal.com]

Well, if you're gonna make a poster out of song lyrics, that's the song to do it with. ;-)

Don't suppose you still have it? I'd love to see a picture.

[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."

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

It might still be around, but it and I are in different countries, I'm afraid.

[ebenbrooks.livejournal.com]

Ah. Oh, well.

[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. :-)

[netpositive.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I always knew him for "Sundown", but discovered "Pussywillows, Cat-tails" recently and it's hit a major chord in me.

[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.

[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!

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

[kshandra]

...and kightp was there.