He was 86. I have two of his albums—The Way I Feel (notable for the Canadian Railroad Trilogy, which said the railroads were bad for the environment and worse for the indigenous Canadians) and Lightfoot, which has many good songs. He did First Time, by Ewan McColl, Changes, by Phil Ochs, Pride of Man, by Hamilton Camp, Early Morning Rain, and That’s What You Get for Lovin’ Me. In Rich Man’s Spiritual, he said a dying rich man figures if he buys a long white robe, golden slippers, a smiling angel, and a poor man’s troubles he’d have checked all the boxes to get to heaven.
Lightfoot got long and positive reviews in his obituaries. I was afraid it would be all The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a six-minute song that was played to death on CKLW (which was always looking for Canadian content). I’d never stopped to realize how many good songs Lightfoot did.
converselyspeaking 