![]() We even had his song “Beautiful” played, special, at our wedding. I have been a fan of Gordon Lightfoot and his wonderful music since the late 1960s. Fans will find a lot to love in “Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind.” Heavy drinking (we hear about and see evidence of legendary parties held at his home) packed on the pounds and almost derailed his career, but thankfully he came roaring back, inducted into Canada’s Juno Hall of Fame in 1986 by his own idol, Bob Dylan.Ī singular style, beautiful voice, poetic lyrics and perfectionism in the recording studio has made Gordon Lightfoot a legend. The Gordon Lightfoot we see now is slight, almost cadaverous, with long white hair, but it is amazing to watch his many physical iterations throughout the years, beginning as a squeaky clean cut, thinner Glenn Campbell type before morphing into the huskier, afro’ed rendition during his peak. ![]() But perhaps Lightfoot’s greatest achievement is how he imbued the essence of Canada into his music with such songs as ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,’ which Sarah McLachlan recalls as an early busking favorite, and the ‘Canadian Railroad Trilogy’ which he wrote for Canada’s 1967 Centennial. His only number 1 hit in the U.S., “Sundown,” was about the jealousy that ate him alive during his three year affair with the infamous Cathy Smith (the one who went on to give John Belushi his lethal injection). Others, like ‘Steel Rail Blues’ and ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ followed as he reached larger and larger audiences. He tells us how he was making a decent living working for the Royal Bank and how a manager was surprised when he left ‘to become a square dancer.’ Joni Mitchell used to chide him for his envy of the Beatles’ success, turning his frustration at releasing records at the same time they did into appreciation of their music.Īs he started pulling in crowds in Toronto, the hits started to flow beginning with ‘Early Morning Rain,’ a song covered by the likes of Elvis Presley, Paul Weller and Neil Young. The filmmakers go along with Lightfoot as he drives his ‘old man’s’ Buick into the city, then walks around pointing out the sites of Yorkville’s famous coffee houses where he got his start at that point in time when folk, rock and country music met (a young fan stands in front of one taking his picture as he gestures). Perhaps the most surprising filmmaking find is an audio recording of the star as a child Church soprano, his much remarked upon voice soaring higher than we’ve ever heard it before. Editor Alex Shuper seamlessly cuts together vintage and contemporary performances of the same song, a device that showcases just how good Lightfoot still is at eighty. We can see the care that has gone into the film’s editing and visual look right away with an opening title sequence that features a train speeding by a vinyl record spinning on a turntable and Lightfoot’s music and lyrics overlaid on a running brook. While this documentary isn’t a definitive biography of Lightfoot, skipping over many aspects of his life (his second marriage, a number of honors and awards, various illnesses), it covers his music career so well, Robin was surprised not once, but twice, with unfamiliar songs. My husband Robin and I have generational differences in music (he – Motown, Classical, Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot me – punk, Ethereal Wave, Goth, The Cure and Kate Bush), but he won the wedding song pick with Lightfoot’s 1972 ‘Beautiful’ and it is amusing to learn, here, that it is Alec Baldwin’s favorite ballad.
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