Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

For those Canadians interested in the music scene in the 1960s Gordon Lightfoot was a big deal. I am wondering whether he was well known to music enthusiasts in the US and the UK as well. I would be interested in your comments.

Peter, Lightfoot had a tremendous influence on myself and friends in the late '60s, early '70s. Looking back now though we tend to see many of his tunes, like those in his early years when he was on the UA label before hitting it big with 'If You Could Read My Mind, as 'tears in our beers' tunes. A real romantic troubadour I guess. I saw him once in concert, at of all places, a casino in South Lake Tahoe.

I was driving on the North Shore of Lake Superior on the Queen's Highway during the storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald.

I stopped the next day at a log general store. There was a moose head sitting in the parking lot, with flies buzzing around it.

Desolate country.

©2005, The Clever One, all rights reserved

Peter: I'm reminded of a classic 'Seinfeld' episode. Someone alludes to a famous song about a shipwreck and Elaine says something like, "Yeah, I love Edmund Fitzgerald's singing voice". Jerry says, "No, Elaine. That was a song by Gordon Lightfoot". And she goes, "No, Jerry, I think you're wrong. It was definitely by Edmund Fitzgerald".

He had three or four big hits that I remember besides the Edmund Fitzgerald including: "Sundown", "If you could read my mind", (which was the first I remember) and "Carefree Highway"
I'm sure there are others also that I don't remember.

I worked with Canadian geologists who (besides playing hockey during their lunchbreaks and drinking profusely at every opportunity) revered Lightfoot and demanded respect for him from us Yanks whenever his tunes came out of the bar's jukebox...Years later, a friend told me he had seen Lightfoot live, and that Gordon was so gassed he fell off his stool...don't know about his impact overall, but sounds like he left a mark on that stage...

Besides the songs already mentioned, I remember liking a song "Early Morning Rain". It was on an album I had long ago called Gord's Gold

I remember it well.

"In the early morning rain...

With a pistol by my side..."

I believe PPM did it, too.

Fist recording of Early Morning Rain was by the Canadian duo Ian & Sylvia though Lightfoot did write the song. It has been recorded by many PP&M as Paul states, Elvis, Dylan, Kingston Tro, Judy Collins.

Jerry Lee Lewis did a version in the seventies and even The Grateful Dead did it. There have been other versions too, popular song. But lyrics you quote paul are incorrect, starts "In the Early Morning Rain.. with a dollar in my hand"

With Lightfoot, a pistol was more likely.

Roy...a Fist recording??? That's impressive...all I can play with my fist is Louie Louie...

Indeed Dane, glad to see you are making use of Peter's spellchecker. Were you aware there has been at least 53 versions of Louie Louie recorded?.

And the original is kind of a soul ballad, very far from The Kingsmen. The Kinks did a great version too.

I have original down as Richard Berry, is that correct Bob?

I believe so Roy you know more than I do, I've only heard it once in my life and couldn't have come up with the name on my own. He wrote it didn't he?