| BORN:
November 17, 1938, Orillia, Ontario, Canada |
|
Gordon's
parents recognized and encouraged his interest in music;
his first appearance at Massey Hall in Toronto, was just
before he turned 13, when he won a competition for boys
with unchanged voices.
After
a background in barbershop quartets, and as a member of
a duo, Lightfoot struck out on his own in the early 60s.
Gordon
Lightfoot first began to gain recognition in the mid-'60s
as a songwriter when his songs, "For Lovin' Me"
and "Early Morning Rain" became hits for Peter,
Paul & Mary. Marty Robbins topped the country charts with
another of Gordon's songs, "Ribbon of Darkness."
Gordon's
own style, however, didn't get him the recognition he
deserved at first. His tasteful folk arrangements rendered
by a gentle burr of a voice began to appear in albums
from 1966, but it was not until the start of the '70s
that he became a big success as a performer. In 1970,
'Sit Down Young Stranger' appeared, which contained
his hit "If You Could Read My Mind," a song with
a flowing melodic line and poetic lyrics.
Success
came in the first half of the '70s. Gordon hit a peak
in 1974 with 'Sundown', which, together with the
single of the title song, went to number one.
On
November 10, 1975 the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior.
The story became the inspiration for Gordon's hit song,
'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald'. Even though,
a quarter of a century has past, there is still a great
deal of interest in the Edmund Fitzgerald story and in
Gordon's song. Our own website, with
a page dedicated to it has received over 13,000 hits
since 1999.
Though
Gordon had developed a timeless style, he was caught by
the popular decline of folk-based music in the latter
half of the 1970s, and has performed and recorded less
frequently since. Concert appearances in the early '90s,
however, confirmed that he remains an engaging and popular
performer, his catalog of original songs being hard to
match. The album, 'Painter Passing Through'followed
in 1998.
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