Gordon Lightfoot, the Candian singer-songwriter known for such 1970s hits as “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Sundown,” has died at the age of 84.
Lightfoot’s death was announced on his official Facebook page and confirmed to media by his publicist, Victoria Lord. Lightfoot’s cause of death was not mentioned.
Lightfoot saw a quick ascent to stardom in the early 1960s, when two songs he had written, “Early Morning Rain” and “For Lovin’ Me,” were recorded by friends Ian and Sylvia Tyson and later by popular folk group Peter, Paul and Mary.
A third song he wrote, “Ribbon of Darkness,” then became a hit via Marty Robbins on the country charts, and Lightfoot’s place as a top-shelf musical talent was unquestioned as he joined the conversation with such luminaries as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton.
After appearing at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, Lightfoot found success on the singer side. In 1970, he found his first hit as a singer with his own song, “If You Could Read My Mind,” about the dissolution of his marriage. After that, his songs became a staple of pop radio, with many successive hits, including “Rainy Day People,” “Carefree Highway” and 1975’s “Sundown.”
Lightfoot was born on Nov. 17, 1938, in Orillia, Canada, a small town on the banks of Lake Simcoe, 100 miles north of Toronto in Ontario Province.
Lightfoot was married and divorced twice. He is survived by a sister, Beverley Eyers, and six children, Fred, Ingrid, Miles, Meredith, Eric and Galen.
