Marshal in Harry Tracy: The Last of the Wild Bunch, was during this time.) But as the movie reveals, he got on the wagon – or more specifically, into a canoe.

Lightfoot was drinking heavily in the early 1980s, a fact that hurt his relationships and his music at the time. Lightfoot’s “Song for a Winter’s Night,” considered a paean to Canadian winters, evoking firelight and a glass of wine, was written in a Cleveland hotel room on a muggy summer evening, when Lightfoot was missing his homeland and his loved ones there.

He never knew when inspiration would strike Although it means we’ll never hear a song like “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” but set in the financial services sector. He also got an office job at Royal Bank, but gave it up to concentrate on his music, thank heavens. But time and again who should pop up but celebrity Lightfoot fan Alec Baldwin? “This is a guy who sang poems,” says the smitten actor.Īfter a stint in a barbershop quartet, the pre-famous Lightfoot was a drummer in a band, a fact that may have contributed to the distinctive beats in his guitar-playing style. The documentary interviews some well-known Canadian singers including Sarah McLachlan and Anne Murray, and reveals a long-time mutual admiration between Lightfoot and Bob Dylan. “I didn’t know what chauvinism was,” he says now. Article contentĪnd he says in the documentary that he’ll never again write a song like “That’s What You Get For Loving Me,” which suggests an unfaithful partner. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. it grew dark, it was then …” – when he learned that the 1975 shipping tragedy had not involved a caved-in hatch, which suggested human error on the part of the crew.īut he has made changes for more personal reasons, once modifying a line in the title song, “If You Could Read My Mind,” from “the feelings that you lack,” to “the feelings that we lack.” The song is about one of his divorces, and his daughter reminded him that such things are seldom about just one party in the marriage. a main hatchway caved in” became “At 7 p.m. A few years ago, he changed a line in “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” – “At 7 p.m. Lightfoot works assiduously on his lyrics, but they don’t always turn out perfectly. Here are five things we learned about the octogenarian singer-songwriter. Directors Joan Tosoni and Martha Kehoe gather quite a few in their new documentary Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind. You don’t get to 80 years old – especially in the Canadian music industry – without a few stories. Activate your Online Access Now Article content If you are a Home delivery print subscriber, unlimited online access is included in your subscription. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.

The winternight trilogy set