“In the early morning rain with a dollar in my hand…”. So began one of the best songs in history, ‘Early Morning Rain’, one of the many fabulous hits composed by Gordon Lightfoot, one of the singers who shaped Canada. Yesterday, at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, he passed away of natural causes at the age of 84, leaving the music world an orphan.
If I could read your mind, love
Gordon Lightfoot was born on November 17, 1938 and defined the fusion of folk with other styles in the mid-1960s. His songs spoke of roads, boats, rivers, loneliness, love and heartbreak, they smelled of early morning taverns and kisses you no longer feel, they sounded like hugs and farewells on a platform. It was so popular that his songs were covered by Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash or Harry Belafonte, among many others.
Lightfoot learned to play the piano, drums, was interested in orchestration and jazz movements: music pulsed through his veins. So much so, that his first performance was at school, during a day when fathers and mothers were present. He leaves behind 21 studio albums and three live albums in which he gives a good account of his history as a musician: the last one, on March 20, 2020, was, moreover, the first solo recording. Genius and figure.
Lightfoot had cancelled his tour a few weeks earlier due to his health, but nothing foreshadowed this end for an artist who was always in good shape. The world has lost a voice full of nuances that brought back memories of things you never lived. Rest in peace, Gordon.