Gordon Lightfootone of the legends of canadian folk, died last Monday evening in Toronto. He was 84 years old.
His death, at Sunnybrook Hospital, was confirmed by his publicist, Victoria Lord. The cause of death was not specified, but it was stated that Lightfoot had a series of health problems in recent years, in fact, in April he had to cancel the concerts he had planned in the United States and Canada for this year due to the problems he was suffering from.
“The singer is currently experiencing health issues and cannot confirm rescheduled dates at this time.”his team wrote in a statement posted to their social media accounts.
Lightfoot burst onto the music scene in 1962 and would quickly become a folk music devoteebeing responsible for some of the the greatest hits of the genre for the next two decades, despite the fact that in 1972 Lightfoot was diagnosed with Bell’s palsywhich caused partial paralysis on the left side of his face for a time, but the composer, far from stopping the tour he was currently involved in, continued to write and record music.
The singer released his first album in 1966, Light foot!after working in the United States and the United Kingdom, a work that has earned him recognition both in Canada and the United States and which contains some of his most popular songsas To love me there Rai early in the morningwhich has been performed by Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan, among others.
He traveled across Canada, the United States and Australia while publishing new albums with very diverse themes, including Don Quixote (1972), his eighth album, in reference to the character of the writer Miguel de Cervantes.
The aforementioned Presley and Dylan, as well as other artists of the stature of Neil Young, Barbra Streisand, Eric Clapton, Olivia Newton John oh Jerry Lee Lewis they also covered some of the over 500 songs he wrote. “Every time I hear one of his songs, it’s like I wish it would last forever”said Bob Dylan, a friend of the Canadian artist for nearly 60 years.
Gordon Lightfoot, 1977. / Archive by Michael Ochs/Getty Images
In the 1980s, after years of alcohol abuse and after being convicted of drunk driving, Lightfoot changed his lifestyle and revitalized his career with the album Greetreleased in 1983. His last album, his twenty-first, was Beginningswhich he released in 2021.
In Canada, the composer is considered one of the artists who best embodied the essence of the country in his songs, from its climate to its landscape, including its inhabitants. Gordon Lightfoot received five Grammy nominations throughout his career and won 17 Juno Awards (Awards presented by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.) In 1986, Bob Dylan added Lightfoot to the Music Hall of Fame Canadian at the Juno Awards that year.