RIP Gordon Lightfoot

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Pooh-Bah

Can't Leave
Apr 21, 2023
314
3,552
31
Central Maryland
Gordon's the only musician I'd ever seen live - about a year ago, in fact.
I was fairly close to the stage, and I think we made eye contact near the end of If You Could Read My Mind.
I was in a complicated place romantically at the time, you see, and had a bit of dew in my eyes. At the song's end he was looking in my direction, and said "Press on!"

Rest in peace, Mr Lightfoot.
 

ssjones

Moderator
Staff member
May 11, 2011
18,446
11,353
Maryland
postimg.cc
Sadly, we never saw him until last year, in a small local theater. It was show that was supposed to have happened pre-Covid. He was embarrassingly bad. He couldn't sing or really barely move. He stayed in one of our hotels and I was at the show with the owner of our company. After the show, he said "I hope he doesn't die in our hotel". If you have a chance to see your musical heroes, when they can still perform, do it. RIP Gordon, your legacy will outlive your latter years.

Bob Dylan said of Lightfoot: “I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like. Every time I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever".
 

btp79

Can't Leave
Jan 27, 2018
436
711
Sugar Land, TX
Sadly, we never saw him until last year, in a small local theater. It was show that was supposed to have happened pre-Covid. He was embarrassingly bad. He couldn't sing or really barely move. He stayed in one of our hotels and I was at the show with the owner of our company. After the show, he said "I hope he doesn't die in our hotel". If you have a chance to see your musical heroes, when they can still perform, do it. RIP Gordon, your legacy will outlive your latter years.
I felt the same way the last time I saw Willie Nelson.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,459
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald made the ship a legend. The cook who greets his shipmates with, "It's been good to know you," is an powerful lyric. My late wife and I picnicked at the monument at White Fish Bay on Lake Superior that commemorates the sinking.

Some Great Lakes mariners have pointed out that there have been a number of shipwrecks of that same size and loss of life, but the song made the Fitzgerald an emblem for them all.

Likewise, the song is an emblem for a long and productive career as the music lives on.
 
Last edited:

kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
13,506
22,072
77
Olathe, Kansas
When a guy gets to be 84 you only going to be to say you saw him. Usually at that time just about all the music that was in him is gone. The guy had an amazing career but was well thought of on both sides of the border. R.I.P.
 
  • Like
Reactions: brian64