Gordon Lightfoot, Canada’s answer to U.S. singer-songwriters who provided the soundtrack for baby boomers coming of age amid a countercultural revolution, died Monday, his publicist said. He was 84.
Lightfoot died at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto of natural causes, publicist Victoria Lord said.
Lightfoot accomplished a feat more rarified in popular music today, essentially becoming a one-man act who performed his own, critically acclaimed music, including his most-noted mid-1960s songs, “Early Mornin’ Rain,” and “For Lovin’ Me.”
He wrote songs for Peter, Paul And Mary and Marty Robbins, and his 1968 album, “Did She Mention My Name?” earned him his first Grammy nomination, for Best Folk Performance.
Lightfoot’s rolling, guitar-based music, influenced by Bob Dylan and the era’s folk artists, was equally at home on radio alongside Anne Murray as it was next to the Eagles.
He recorded five core albums for United Artists before continuing his career with Warner/Reprise through the 1990s. The 2012 release of “All Live” represented his only live album since those original United Artists releases.
In 2002, he suffered a near-death bout with illness but survived, according to his official biography, and continued to record and perform.
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