Gordon Lightfoot dies at age 84: Is he Canada's greatest singer-songwriter? Is he on the Mt. Rushmore for Canadian musicians?
Legendary singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot passed away yesterday at age eighty-four. His catalog of great songs includes “If You Could Read My Mind”, “Sundown”, “Carefree Highway”, “Rainy Day People” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Almost immediately after his death was announced, the tributes began on Twitter. A sample of them included “Canada’s greatest singer-songwriter” and “On the Mt. Rushmore of Canadian Musicians. While those are lovely thoughts, I’m sure those folks were just caught up in the moment over the immediacy of the news. Nothing was wrong with that, but it made me wonder if those statements were true, or even if they were close to true.
Let’s start with the easy one, Canada’s greatest singer-songwriter: I think the choices start and end with these three: Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. Depending on your musical taste, you can choose any of them and be good with the choice. My choice for this category goes to Neil. Sorry Joni fans, but he’s still writing new music today while Joni’s best days are long over.
The Mt.Rushmore thing is a lot tougher. Although you get four choices, you add many more musicians from different genres of music. Check out some of these Canadian musical legends: Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Michael Buble, The Tragically Hip, Sarah McLachlan, Diana Krall, Brian Adams, and Justin Bieber.
Wow! Have I forgotten anyone? How about The Guess Who, The Band, Steppenwolf, Alanis Morrisette, Rush, and Drake?
Oh man, do you need any more legends? Here’s Arcade Fire, k.d Lang, Feist, Bare Naked Ladies, Paul Anka, Avril Lavigne, Nickleback and Oscar Peterson!
That’s quite a list to choose from. What makes it tougher is I only have one to choose from because Neil, Joni and Leonard are sure things. For me, it comes down to this final four; Celine Dion, Drake, Oscar Peterson, and The Band.
While Celine and Drake have sold the most records, and Oscar is one of the greatest Jazz pianists of all time, I have to go with The Band. Their tunes changed the face of rock music. “The Weight” is one of the greatest songs ever written. This fivesome was the Americana genre of music decades before it was a thing.
All of the above takes nothing away from Mr. Lightfoot. When I heard about his death night, one of my first thoughts was I was sorry I missed one of his concerts a couple of years ago. While I was sad about that, it’s easy to picture him sitting on a stage with only an acoustic guitar and crooning one of his wonderful story-songs. I bet that was a special evening.
Rest easy, Gordon. We’ll always remember the songs.
Carefree highway
Let me slip away on you
Carefree highway
You've seen better days
The morning after blues
From my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway
Let me slip away, slip away on you