The fairies appear temporarily and lividly in Martha Kehoe and Joan Tosoni’s documentary about legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. “If there was a Mount Rushmore in Canada, Gordon would be there,” says Tom Cochrane. “It’s one of the most productive examples of eternal singer-songwriters,” says Geddy Lee of Rush. “He’s a guy who sang poems,” says Alec Baldwin, who happens to have been included in the debates just because he was a fan.
Fortunately, Octagenary Lightfoot is also available to offer a less hagiographic perspective. “I guess I don’t like who I am,” the interpreter admits. And when asked about his 1965 song “For Lovin ‘Me,” whose chauvinistic lyrics like “I’m not the love you thought you were / I have hundreds of people like you,” the performer admits, “I hate this damn song.”
As the name suggests, Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind, released in virtual cinemas, offers an impressionistic portrait of his theme, vaguely his songs as a frame. Although far from complete, the film’s entertaining biography deserves to attract longtime singer enthusiasts well, especially those who have followed it over a six-decade career, and may make new ones.
The film tells the story of Lightfoot’s life and career, from his years of choir training to his vocation as a folk singer-songwriter in Toronto’s cafes and clubs. After signing with Warner Bros. ‘Reprise Records, released a 1970 album, Sit Down Young Stranger, which made a slight impression. That is, until a disc jockey starts betting one of the pieces on the B-side, “If you could read my mind,” it’s become a wonderful success. The album was temporarily re-released and reissued, and turned Lightfoot into a foreign superstar.
Lightfoot’s good fortune made him a national hero in Canada. Cochrane describes him as the country’s “laureate poet,” while Lee says, “He sent the message to the world that we’re not just an organization of lumberjacks and hockey players here. We are capable of sensitivity and poetry. Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Anne Murray and Sarah McLachlan are among the many Canadian musicians in the film who sing their compliments and praise their influence. A corporate record executive offers the ultimate compliment: “Toronto enjoyed it, just as Toronto loves Drake right now.”
Successful songs like “Early Morning Rain” have been countless times. The documentary includes audio and video excerpts from versions recorded through Peter, Paul and Mary, Judy Collins, Ian and Sylvia, Grateful Dead, Neil Young and Elvis Presley.
The film also dives into darker moments related to lightfoot’s excessive alcohol consumption and petticoats and his troubled date with Cathy Smith (best known in those days for injecting the drugs that killed John Belushi), who encouraged his hit song “Sundown”. Despite everything, he cleaned up his act, avoiding drinking bloodless turkey and adopting a healthier lifestyle that included, in the purest Canadian style, much canoeing. Unfortunately, he never quit smoking, which would possibly be his thin appearance and a muted voice that doesn’t come close to his old mellow baritone.
Music lovers will appreciate anecdotes about specific songs, such as Frank Sinatra’s attempt to record “If You Could Read My Mind,” and then throw the score angrily to the ground and announce, “I can’t sing that.” Lightfoot’s band members describe the recording consultation of one of his biggest hits, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. Not only the epic song cut in the first shot, but also the first time one of the musicians played it.
Lightfoot gives ironic and unhappy comments throughout, freely admitting its non-public flaws, especially with regard to its relationships with women. What stands out most obviously is his lifelong fondness for writing songs and playing. Numerous sequences of career-wide performances come with numbers from a 2018 exhibition at Toronto’s Massey Hall, filled with a beloved audience. The film ends with a photo of himself coming out alone through the stage door, with the guitar case in hand, as if to emphasize that despite his foreign fame, he is only an active musician.
91 minutes
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