Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

One of Gordon Lightfoot’s best-known songs was born out of a dying marriage. With its visions of wishing-well ghosts, movie queens and paperback novels, “If You Could Read My Mind” contains some of Lightfoot’s most vivid imagery. Emotionally, the lyrics stand out for their startling honesty. The words had poured out of him one afternoon in 1969, while sitting alone in an empty house. Baring his soul like never before, he’d written lines like “I don’t know where we went wrong, but the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back.” There was little doubt it was about his broken marriage. The words “heroes often fail” suggest he blamed himself for its demise, but the phrase “chains upon my feet”...

Gordon Lightfoot became a star at home during Canada’s centennial year. South of the border, he was still mostly known as the composer of hits for others, including Marty Robbins and Peter, Paul and Mary. All that changed in 1968. Why it didn’t happen earlier had a lot to do with the delayed release of the Canadian artist’s debut album, Lightfoot! Although recorded late in 1964, it didn’t appear until over a year later, by which time the folk boom had largely gone bust, thanks to the twin forces of the Beatles and an electrified Bob Dylan. Lightfoot was working hard at playing catch up, releasing The Way I Feel and touring relentlessly throughout ’67. By early the following year, the tide wa...

It is the most patriotic of all his songs, a three-part epic that recounts the construction of a nation-spanning railway, describes the stark beauty of a country’s landscape and tells of the human toil it took to build the “iron road runnin’ from the sea to the sea.” And yet Gordon Lightfoot’s “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” managed to resonate with listeners on both sides of the 49th parallel when it was released 50 years ago. Appearing on Lightfoot’s 1967 album The Way I Feel, the “Trilogy” was instantly embraced by Canadians already deep into celebrating their country’s 100th anniversary. But Americans somehow connected with the song as well. When Lightfoot launched into the robust ballad the...

A contemporary of Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot, David emerged in the ’70s as one of Canada’s finest singer-songwriters, covered by stars like Anne Murray and Harry Belafonte. This collection of previously unreleased songs, featuring such standouts as “Rocking Chair World” and “Ballad of Jacob Marlowe,” reasserts the depth of his talent.

Blue Rodeo is a summer favorite. But here the veteran Canadian band brings its rootsy vibe to wintry songs, including Jim Cuddy’s new “Home To You This Christmas.” The group also delivers such superb covers as a chiming take on Big Star’s “Jesus Christ,” a warm rendition of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Song for a Winter’s Night” and a stirring version of The Band’s “Christmas Must Be Tonight.”