Rest in the Vine: Gordon Lightfoot, R.I.P.

"A toast to those who love to hear

a D-18 played Lightfoot clear
Music still lives in shops and bars
Along Rue de la Guitare
Rue de la Guitare"--Jimmy Buffett

Gordon Lightfoot (Bob Dylan's favorite singer) - NSF - Magazine (needsomefun.net)

“Lightfoot became a mentor for a long time. I think he probably still is to this day.” – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan with Gordon Lightfoot at the Mariposa Folk Festival, Centre Island, Toronto, ON, July 15, 1972.

Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn, 1975

source

“Favouite Lightfoot songs? Shadows, Sundown, If You Could Read My Mind. I can’t think of any I don’t like! Everytime I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever. ” – Bob Dylan

Mark Steyn: Of Rain and Wrecks: Steyn's Songs of the Week #338 :: SteynOnline:

"It was on his debut album - the exclamatory Lightfoot! - in 1966, by which time Ian & Sylvia, the Canadian folk act with the arrestingly prosaic name, and the Grateful Dead, the American rock band with the prosaically arresting name, had both recorded the number. And Judy Collins, George Hamilton IV and Peter, Paul and Mary had put it, respectively, on the Billboard album, country and pop charts. "Early Morning Rain" isn't quite the first song Gordon Lightfoot wrote, but it was the first to get any notice internationally, and I do believe to this day it's the most recorded of his compositions. Jerry Lee Lewis did it, and Paul Weller from The Jam, and the Kingston Trio, Eva Cassidy, Billy Bragg... oh, and Bob Dylan, on one of his worst received albums (first line of Greil Marcus' Rolling Stone review: "What is this sh*t?"). It's a simple song, and for my tastes it can go awry in the wrong key or an insufficient travelin' accompaniment. The composer likes Elvis' version, and so do I: Elvis Presley - Early Mornin' Rain (Official Audio) - YouTube" ...."

Gordon Lightfoot On Longevity, Elvis, Dylan, & Bieber: "I have a personal connection to all of my songs but I really like what Elvis did with "Early Morning Rain". It has such a smooth feel to it. Obviously he was meant to record it."

Laura Rosen Cohen:

""Sometimes, your loved one can be a problem." No kidding. A great interview with the one and only Gordon Lightfoot. I pretty much grew up with Lightfoot strumming along in the background. I'm a big fan, used to go to his amazing concerts with my mom, a superfan since the Riverboat Cafe days in the Toronto of the 1960s. She always managed to get front row seats for his annual shows at Massey Hall and we even got to go backstage a few times. Incredible memories."

Burton Cummings as Gordon Lightfoot - YouTube

Gordon Lightfoot Last Interview Before Died is very Emotional | He Said it ALL - YouTube

Billy Joel pays tribute to Gordon Lightfoot with heartfelt cover (nme.com)

Gordon Lightfoot and Johnny Cash For Lovin' Me.flv - YouTube

Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind (2019) Review
|BasementRejects--Bio and Documentary

Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian bard, wrote the tune for a nation’s identity - The Globe and Mail

COLUMN: Miigwech, Mr. Lightfoot, from Christian Island - Orillia News (orilliamatters.com)

"Then, when I became a teenager, there was this one soft summer day at the Christian Island government dock when a group of my friends and I watched as a large sailboat was heading our way. It was unusual for sail boats to come to our dock.
Hesitantly, the huge skiff made its way quietly on the wind and sailed to the edge of the dock and we all gathered in toward it, curious to see who would be visiting us. Sailboats were always from somewhere else and always owned by non-natives. Native people couldn’t afford one.
I stepped to the dock's edge as a tall, lean figure left the wheel of the craft and deftly threw a rope into my hands and in a quiet voice asked if I wouldn’t mind tying his boat to the dock.
It was Gordon Lightfoot. There was no mistaking that. It was the same guy on the cover of the Don Quixote album!
I walked to the stern of his vessel and read the name. Silver Heels. This was mind blowing, and too literal! The Silver Heels, here, in the lee of Christian Island.
The Silver Heels remained tied there for a few hours and I did not interact with the captain anymore than that brief exchange. I was raised not to intrude, and the man was obviously here just to relax.
Over the years I would encounter Mr. Lightfoot a few more times. Like the time I was a student working at Georgian Bay Islands National Park (Beausoleil Island). We would regularly see Gordon Lightfoot on the waters as we skimmed past in our official government boats as he sat on a lawn chair atop the deck of his new boat, the Golden Goose.".......

I grew up loving, playing and singing Gordon Lightfoot’s songs. Like Dylan, Gord came out of the old Folk Scene. They were both pre-War, pre-Boomers, closer in age to my parents than me. But his talent made him timeless.

‘Christian Island’ is one of my favorites. It’s a kind of flip side to ‘Edmund’, portraying the “summer side of life”-the peaceful summer serenity of the Great Lakes versus the wintery danger of ‘Fitzgerald’.

The island lies in the Georgian Bay, a huge appendage of Lake Huron, entirely within Canada and the Ojibwe Tribal Lands.

I love that he’s singing with a sense of place, out of his pure love for Canada. That’s a joy that Globalists and their #Fake Prime Ministers will never know.