The legend lives on.
I attended the Gordon Lightfoot concert at Centre in the Square the other night, drawn to the event by a deap-seated love and admiration for the man. And that’s a good thing, because if one had been dropped in from another planet merely hoping to be entertained, one might have wondered what all the fuss was about.
Unlike Mick Jagger and the rest his sixty-something bandmates who appear to be defying father time, Gordon Lightfoot is so clearly all of his 69 years of age, not to mention the fact that he cannot erase his years of hard living and recent flirtation with death. As Jagger appears to have gotten stronger and more powerful with age, Lightfoot’s voice is not what it used to be.
Still, he is an icon, and most people in attendance love and respect him for his vast musical contribution, and were merely happy to see him standing and singing in whatever voice he had left.
Lightfood is a legend, and a distinctly Canadian one. I have wonderful memories of being at the family cottage in the Kawartha Lakes in the 1970’s looking out over the lake, stubby in hand, listening to the call of the loon and the sound of Mr. Lightfoot. His music places me there whenever I hear it. God love you Gord. We love you.