Gordon Lightfoot was our most enduring and endearing genius. Canada didn’t just lose a troubadour who helped score the soundtrack to our lives. Canada lost a bit of Canada this week. Opinion by vinaymenon
I have a flashbulb memory of sitting on the floor cross-legged in my childhood bedroom and listening to “Canadian Railroad Trilogy.” For a kid with a funny name who didn’t look like many others in school, Lightfoot became a history teacher, a giver of lore, an emotional healer, a code-breaker to what it meant to be Canadian.He could make you tap your toes and see the light when life was darkest.— he provided free rides we could take when the mood struck.
Until the end, Lightfoot never lost touch with the small-town boy who wasn’t even sure music could earn him a living. He just couldn’t help himself. Music, like eating or sleeping, was a biological imperative.I suspect that’s why millions of Canadians also have flashbulb memories in which a Gordon Lightfoot song is playing in the background. From first kisses to last goodbyes, from triumphs to kicks in the face, he was always just one play away. His microphone was a national PA system.
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