RIP Gord Lightfoot

[VidThreeNorth]

Gord Lightfoot died about a week ago on May 1st. I have been thinking about what I wanted to say about him daily. I am not a frequent concert goer, but I did see him live, many years ago. He was pervasively somewhere in the background of my life -- like Queen Elizabeth II. The tributes are still being posted. Researching him is easy now. Just put his name in a search in YouTube or Wikipedia, so I will only post a single sample link. Wikipedia lists his last album as "Solo" in 2020.

Regarding his death, Wikipedia posts: "In mid-April 2023, Lightfoot's declining health caused him to cancel the remainder of his 2023 tour.[77] Lightfoot died of natural causes at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto on May 1, 2023, at the age of 84.[78]" Read that again: At 84, he was still touring. That's ridiculous! I expect that seeing him in concert last year would have been worth it.

"If You Could Read My Mind",
YouTube credit to "Gordon Lightfoot", psted Jan 25, 2017, [length 3:48]
""

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Tonight is the end of the Victoria's Day weekend in Toronto. Months ago I decided that I was creating too many topics for eulogies and I made a loose decision not to create any more. This topic shows that this decision was clearly open to exceptions, but really, I did make the decision. In the futures, I might not make another specific topic like this one, but rather, I will probably just add a note to the lounge topic. But it depends on the circumstance. Obviously, if I feel a situation warrants it, I might create a new topic. It will just be "less likely" in the future. The reason I decided to post it today, at the end of a local holiday, was because it was a sad topic, and I did not like the idea of bringing it to public attention at the start of a holiday.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

I am adding five more singers and musicians who have passed away recently:

Robbie Robertson
Sinead O'Connor
Tony Bennett
Burt Bacharach
and David Crosby

The main reason I am adding this note to this topic is because of Robbie Robertson, guitarist and main writer/composer for "the Band". Robertson, like Lightfoot was a born-and-raised-in-Canada" Canuck. Ironically, I don't recall ever seeing the Band live in Toronto. At most, I might have passed him in a music shop. This has been a strange period. I don't have hard stats, but it does seem to me that the last year was heavy in losses.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

"Rush - Spirit of Radio",
posted by "gvbezoff" Jun 13, 2008, [6:41]

Since I have added the above (about Robertson and others), I thought I should add another to this topic. Neal Peart of "Rush" died in January 2020. I did not hear about it until more recently, so since it was not "news", I did not post anything about it. But 2020 was not that long ago, so maybe I should have mentioned him before.

In 2003, Rush performed at the "Downsview Park" Rolling Stones concert. You can search for the story behind the concert. It's a Keith Richards matter. The last three acts were Rush, ACDC and the Stones. It was a "work day" concert, so I decided to leave after ACDC.

Pictures? The only cameras allowed were preloaded single use film box cameras. I don't think I bought one. As I expected, I was so far away that it didn't really matter. Rush started with a short cover of "Painted Black" which lead into "Spirit of Radio".