country charts, while Peter, Paul and Mary took Lightfoot’s composition, “For Lovin’ Me,” into the U.S. Marty Robbins’ 1965 recording of “Ribbon of Darkness” reached No. By the next year, Lightfoot’s song “I’m Not Sayin’” was a hit in Canada, which helped spread his name in the United States.Ī couple of covers by other artists didn’t hurt either. When he started playing the Mariposa Folk Festival in his hometown of Orillia, Ontario that same year, Lightfoot forged a relationship that made him the festival’s most loyal returning performer.īy 1964, he was garnering positive word-of-mouth around town and audiences were starting to gather in growing numbers. Lightfoot made his popular radio debut with the single ”(Remember Me) I’m the One” in 1962, which led to a number of hit songs and partnerships with other local musicians. The singer was living with a few friends in a condemned building in Yorkville, then a bohemian area where future stars including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell would learn their trade at smoke-filled clubs. It was there he met fellow musician Ronnie Hawkins. His first gig was at Fran’s Restaurant, a downtown family-owned diner that warmed to his folk sensibilities. He pledged to move to Toronto to pursue his musical ambitions, taking any job available, including a position at a bank before landing a gig as a square dancer on CBC’s “Country Hoedown.” Life in Hollywood wasn’t a good fit, however, and it wasn’t long before Lightfoot returned to Canada. The trip was funded in part by money saved from a job delivering linens to resorts around his hometown. Attempts to sell the song went nowhere so at 18, he headed to the U.S. After taking the class again, he graduated in 1957.īy then, Lightfoot had already penned his first serious composition - “The Hula Hoop Song,” inspired by the toy that was sweeping the culture.
Perhaps distracted by his taste for music, he flunked algebra the first time. He strummed his first guitar in 1956 and began to dabble in songwriting in the months that followed. The appeal of those early days stuck and in high school, his barbershop quartet, The Collegiate Four, won a CBC talent competition. “I remember the thrill of being in front of the crowd,” Lightfoot said in a 2018 interview. At age 13, the soprano won a talent contest at the Kiwanis Music Festival, held at Toronto’s Massey Hall. He began singing in his church choir and dreamed of becoming a jazz musician. While Lightfoot’s parents recognized his musical talents early, he didn’t set out to become a renowned balladeer. “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” for instance, is a haunting tribute to the 29 men who died in the 1975 sinking of the ship in Lake Superior during a storm. “It’s not country, not folk, not rock,” he said in a 2000 interview. Lightfoot’s music had a style all its own.
“I take situations and write poems about them.” “I simply write the songs about where I am and where I’m from,” he once said. May his music continue to inspire future generations, and may his legacy live on forever.” “Gordon Lightfoot captured our country’s spirit in his music – and in doing so, he helped shape Canada’s soundscape. “We have lost one of our greatest singer-songwriters,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted. and Canadian shows, citing health issues.
Just last month he canceled upcoming U.S. He performed in well over 1,500 concerts and recorded 500 songs. In the 1970s, Lightfoot garnered five Grammy nominations, three platinum records and nine gold records for albums and singles. One of the most renowned voices to emerge from Toronto’s Yorkville folk club scene in the 1960s, Lightfoot recorded 20 studio albums and penned hundreds of songs, including “Carefree Highway,” “Early Morning Rain” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” His cause of death was not immediately available. Representative Victoria Lord said the musician died at a Toronto hospital. TORONTO - Gordon Lightfoot, the folk singer-songwriter known for “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Sundown” and for songs that told tales of Canadian identity, died Monday.
0 kommentar(er)
