Legendary folk singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot dies at 84 - Terrace Standard

A cause of death was not immediately available.

Other celebrities and politicians added their praises of Lightfoot’s craft. Author Stephen King described him as “a wonderful performer,” and former Ontario premier Bob Rae said he was “such a decent man” and a “musician with a magnificent tenor voice that will last forever.” His 1975 song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” chronicled the demise of a Great Lakes ore freighter, and 1966’s “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” depicted the construction of the railway.

But he was humble about his status: “How does it feel to be an icon? It makes me feel no different as a human entity on the face of the planet.” By then, Lightfoot had already penned his first serious composition — “The Hula Hoop Song,” inspired by the popular kids’ toy that was sweeping the culture. Attempts to sell the song went nowhere so at 18, he headed to the U.S. to study music for a year. The trip was funded in part by money saved from a job delivering linens to resorts around his hometown.

Lightfoot made his popular radio debut with the single “ I’m the One” in 1962, which led to a number of hit songs and partnerships with other local musicians. When he started playing the Mariposa Folk Festival in his hometown of Orillia, Ont., that same year, Lightfoot forged a relationship that made him the festival’s most loyal returning performer.

That summer, Lightfoot performed at the Newport Folk Festival, the same year Dylan rattled audiences when he shed his folkie persona by playing an electric guitar. When Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue came to Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens in 1975, Lightfoot was invited on stage. Afterwards, he hosted a party for the crew at his home where he was filming singing his folk contemporary’s “Ballad In Plain D,” which later appeared in Dylan’s pseudo-documentary “Renaldo and Clara.”

Indeed, Lightfoot endured a very public battle with alcoholism and other personal hurdles, particularly with the women who inspired his lyrics. Lightfoot went on to marry Elizabeth Moon in 1989. While his second marriage produced two children, the couple ultimately divorced in 2011.

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