Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. CC OOntis a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s. He has been referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter and internationally as a folk-rock legend...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth17 November 1938
CityOrillia, Canada
CountryCanada
Give me a wave I can ride upon, come and show your strength to me.
I don't know where we went wrong, but the feeling's gone and I just can't get it back.
Words are for explaining the mistakes we might have made, names are for calling when there is nothing left to say.
See the judge upon the bench who tries the case as best he can, see the wise and wicked ones who feed upon life's sacred fire, see the soldier with his gun who must be dead to be admired.
It seems so lucky to just to have the right of telling you with all my might, you're beautiful tonight.
Everything is trust, all the rest is dust.
Getting lost in her loving is your first mistake.
To wear the crown of peace, you must wear the crown of thorns.
I worked in a plant when I was 14 for two years. I always wanted to do the summer jobs. Honest to God, I always had to be doing something.
When love is true there is no truer occupation.
When I was 16, I used to drive huge loads of laundry in a three ton truck. I would turn round at night to drive back and see the band in a place north of Toronto called Dunn's Pavilion. I would drive that truck all day and they drive back and all the way until one day I wrecked the truck. I fell asleep and wrecked it. I was OK and so was my helper. I called my dad and the first words out of his mouth were, "are you OK?" I was really lucky I had a kind father.
My first song was Hula Hoop Song, in 1955. It was a novelty song. I had to find someway to reach out and it was with a novelty song. Now, all of my recording obligations have been taken care of. I made 14 albums for Warner Brothers. Five for United Artist before that.
I went on tours with [Bob] Dylan - the big one was in 1975 and called Roaring Thunder Review. I knew him well because I met him around the time he did his second album, in 1963. He recorded one of my songs called Shadows. In the 1970s, it was suggested that we do a duet, because we had the same manager, Albert Grossman, who also managed Odetta and Peter, Paul and Mary. Dylan and I respected what each other did, but I just decided not to do it.
Both the Beatles and The Rolling Stones broke on the music scene the summer I was in England. I can vividly remember hearing She Loves You in August 1963.