GORDON LIGHTFOOT (1938 - 2023)

Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian folk-rock musician who had a string of hits throughout the 1970's, has passed away on May 1st at the age of eighty-four. The singer-songwriter has been credited with helping to bring folk music to the pop charts, influencing many artists who would later cover his music.

Born in Orillia, Ontario, Lightfoot began singing in his church as a child, learning to sing with emotion and confidence by his choirmaster. As a boy soprano, he would perform at local operas and music festivals. After taking piano lessons, Lightfoot would teach himself how to play the drums and guitar. In 1958, Lightfoot attended college at Westlake College of Music in Los Angeles to study jazz composition. While in LA, he got involved in the folk music scene that was emerging but after two years, Lightfoot returned to Canada, settling in Toronto.

He began to get his career in motion, making his name in local coffee houses and performing with the country music band, the Singin' Swingin' Eight. This led to Lightfoot getting signed with RCA Records in 1962 and releasing two singles with both receiving significant airplay throughout Canada. Lightfoot worked several folk music festivals until he was able to release his debut album, "Lightfoot!" in 1966 with United Artists Records. This collection highlighted his gift as a singer and songwriter, making him a big name in Canada and bringing him attention elsewhere.

Unhappy with his current label, Lightfoot signed with Warner Bros./Reprise Records in 1970. He would breakthrough with the international hit, "If You Could Read My Mind" from his fifth studio album, originally titled "Sit Down Young Stranger" but later renamed after this single. This would begin a run of successful albums and popular songs which include "Beautiful", "Sundown" (Lightfoot's only number one hit in the US), "Carefree Highway", "Rainy Day People" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". In 1972, Lightfoot contracted Bell's Palsy which left his face partially paralyzed and while it did slow down his touring schedule, this did not prevent him from creating music.

By the 1980's, Lightfoot was no longer a fixture on the pop charts, but he continued to make memorable music up until the late '90's. At the turn of new century, more health issues plagued Lightfoot which included an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a stroke and alcoholism. And while Lightfoot was slowed down, he would recover, managing to return to the stage and record music. His last tour was in 2019 and he released an album, "Solo", Lightfoot's twenty-first, the following year. And Lightfoot was the subject of a 2019 documentary, "Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind".

NEW SOUNDS

TAYLOR SWIFT

While Taylor Swift had planned to spend the summer on a worldwide tour to promote her last album, "Lover" released last year, a nasty virus got in the way of her concert plans. With plenty of time on her hands (much like the rest of us), the singer spent the last few months creating new music and what came out of that is her eighth studio album, "Folklore". This collection does not feature the inflated, synth-pop production of her previous records. Yet it is also not a clear return to her early country music roots. 

The album offers something a little different; low-key and mature songs that look at our complicated, turbulent times that plays best to her strengths which is vivid songwriting. Swift uses classic folklore, which are stories that blur the lines between truth and fiction, to create songs that are far less self-referential than her music in the past. I must admit I've never been a huge fan of Swift's (more of an admirer) but I must say that I really enjoyed "Folklore" and think this is the thirty-year old superstar's strongest album to date. 

And clearly many others seem to agree. "Folklore" has broken streaming records with Swift having the biggest opening day for an album by a female artist on Spotify and the album has sold 1.3 million copies globally on its first day on July 24th. Swift has stated that the album "started with imagery" so the videos are just as important to express her ideas as the music for "Folklore". She even got behind the camera to direct the clip for the first single, "Cardigan".

KYLIE MINOGUE

After dipping her toes in to some down-home, country-pop with her last album, "Golden" in 2018, Kylie Minogue seems ready to get back to what she's best known for; dance-flavored, pop music. And the title of her upcoming fifteenth studio album says it all: "Disco". The fifty-two year old, down-under pop diva has just dropped the first single, "Say Something" and it is definitely a shimmering dance floor banger. The song (co-written by Minogue with Ash Howes and producers, Jonathan Green and Richard "Biff" Stannard) is about the never-ending quest for love and is just what we need to hear right now. Minogue worked on the album (due out on November 6th) while in quarantine and even learned how to record and engineer her vocals on her own using music software in order to help get the record completed.

And here are a few videos of new music I'm enjoying right now:

LEONARD COHEN (1934 - 2016)

Leonard Cohen, the enigmatic and influential poet, singer and songwriter, has passed away on November 7th at the age of eighty-two. The singer had been struggling with cancer over the last few years and just released his fourteenth album, "You Want It Darker" last month which focused on his mortality and inevitable death with his signature wit and sense of humor. While he was greatly admired as a performer, it was his gift as a songwriter that made the most indelible impression.

Born in Westmount, Quebec, an English-speaking section of Montreal, Cohen first became known as a poet while attending McGill University. He won the prestigious Chester MacNaghten Literary Competition and had his work published in magazines. Cohen's first book of poetry, "Let Us Compare Mythologies" was published in 1956 and wrote other books of poems and fiction throughout much of the '60's.

However, Cohen was not making much of a living as a writer and decided to turn to music after seeing Warhol superstar, Nico perform. His song, "Suzanne", originally created as a poem, became a hit for Judy Collins in 1966 and she would later record many of his other songs. Not a natural performer, Cohen eventually gained confidence which lead to him receiving the attention of Columbia Records who signed him to the label. His debut, "Songs of Leonard Cohen" was released in 1967 which included his version of "Suzanne" and became a cult favorite in the U.S. and Britain.

Cohen would go on to record several acclaimed and highly regarded albums, with many experimenting with a variety of sounds and musical genres but it was his live performances where he would make his biggest impact. He toured extensively, traveling all over the globe for many years but after his 1992 album, "The Future", Cohen took an extended period of time away from his career.

Cohen's music was used in several films in the 1990's like "Pump Up The Volume" and "Natural Born Killers" which introduced the artist to a younger audience. It would be almost ten years before he would make new music with "Ten New Songs", a collection co-written and produced with Sharon Robinson, Cohen's long-time collaborator and was well received.

After discovering his former manager had stolen nearly all of his life savings in 2005, Cohen had to resume his career in earnest and recorded new music, "Old Ideas" in 2012 and "Popular Problems" in 2014 and went back on the road to support them.

Cohen's songs have been covered by countless musicians with his best known, "Hallelujah" is said to have at least three hundred versions recorded. It was just recently performed by Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton during the opening number of the November 12th episode of "Saturday Night Live" the preceding week following both Cohen's death and Clinton's unexpected loss to Donald Trump in the Presidential Election.

Here is a small selection of some of the fine work from Leonard Cohen:





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