Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot has died at the age of 84 in a Toronto hospital. This Tuesday, the Canadian news company CBC and other media reported about it. Along with Neil Young, Leonard Cohen or Joni Mitchell, Lightfoot is considered one of the greatest Canadian singers.
Lightfoot also has his mark in Czech music, his compositions were sung in Czech versions by, for example, František Nedvěd, whose hit Nineteen was originally composed by Lightfoot as If You Could Read My Mind (1970), Nedvěd’s Craft is originally Lightfoot’s composition Sundown (1974). However, the Canadian folk singer’s music was also covered by Michal Tučný, Wabi Daněk and Martin Žák.
Both songs mentioned come from the height of Lightfoot’s fame in the 1970s. Although his popularity waned somewhat in the following decades, he continued to enjoy respect in folk circles, including from other big names in the folk world, such as Bob Dylan.
His life has never lacked drama, reports the cultural weekly Variety. Since the 1970s, Lightfoot’s person has been linked to speculation about extramarital affairs, but also real, and in some cases serious, health problems. Despite these, the musician did not stop giving concerts even in his 80s.
Among other things, Lightfoot is the holder of 17 Canadian Juno Music Awards, and has also received five nominations for the American Grammy Award, reports Reuters.
He was born in 1938 in Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Although he was a promising athlete at school, as a teenager he increasingly focused on music, writes Variety. He studied music first in Toronto and then in Los Angeles, USA, where he specifically focused on jazz composition. He returned to Toronto in the 1960s, where he emerged as a folk icon from the local cafe and bar scene in Yorkville.
