May 2, 2023
Gordon Lightfoot, RIP
By
Monica Showalter
Canada lost its greatest folk singer in Gordon Lightfoot, who died on Monday at the age of 84.
Lightfoot's music hailed pioneers, working men, laborers, little guys, trailblazers, and even drunken losers in the true folk tradition of both Canada and the U.S. It was sensitive but distinctly he-man masculine, a vivid reminder of such a thing in this age of anti-masculinity. He sang of the same world described by longshoreman/philosopher Eric Hoffer. His music, though Canadian, had a significant affinity for Michigan, northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, upstate New York, and states of the historic northwest, where there are many fans. And while many obituaries described Lightfoot's work as "1970s," that's nonsense. His work is so well crafted and original that it doesn't date. It's as easily listened to today as when it first was released, standing the test of time.
Not surprisingly, Lightfoot's death triggered an outpouring of grief and reminiscing on Twitter and beyond, and rightly so.
Even Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, a woke leftist who is all about persecuting working men such as Canadian truckers, unexpectedly wrote a gracious tribute: