Remembering Gordon Lightfoot, Canada’s Authentic Post-War Troubadour
Commentary
Singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot passed away on May 1, 2023. He was 84 years old. He will be remembered as the foremost Canadian singer-songwriter of his age as his songs expressed the longings, fears, hopes, joy, and pain of a generation of Canadians who came of age after World War II.
Lightfoot was raised in a middle-class family in Orillia with his sister and two parents in a fine two-story house in town. He was a good student, a gifted athlete, and a boy soprano who sang in church and at local singing festivals like the Kiwanis.
He was of Scottish descent and remembered singing an Irish folk song at one of his childhood gigs, portents for a nascent balladeer. His parents loved him. His father was his buddy, and they went fishing together, but as Lightfoot once said later, “My mother is my biggest fan.” She encouraged all and every step of his career….