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Gordon Lightfoot: The Carefree Highway Never Ends (2006 interview, and 1974 song)
http://popcultureclassics.com/gordon_lightfoot.html
GORDON LIGHTFOOT: THE CAREFREE HIGHWAY NEVER ENDS
by Paul Freeman [2006 Interview]
In 2002, Gordon Lightfoot hovered near death. Once he recovered, the superlative singer-songwriter eagerly hit the road again.
-snip-
Lightfoot emerged from the Toronto folk scene in 1964. He recorded five albums for United Artists, followed by 14 for Warner/Reprise, completing his contract there in ‘98. A couple of years later, he had enough material for an indie release. But at a charity concert, he was struck by a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. Multiple surgeries and hospital stays were needed to keep him alive. The illness, which required a tracheotomy, affected his voice and hearing, and legs and feet. It was a long road back.
-snip-
Ironically, Lightfoot’s near fatal illness allayed his fear of death. He says that’s because the six weeks following the hemorrhage are a complete blank. “It’s not bad once you get there. It’s like no worries, no cares. Just black. Total peace. I had no particular visions or religious experience of any kind. I was just gone.”
He doesn’t feel that experience necessarily contradicts his church upbringing. “The fact that I don’t remember anything does not mean to me that there is not an afterlife. I still feel I can look forward to that, if it truly is real. Until then, like most of us, I just try to be good to my neighbors, basically. That’s what I was taught. So if there is an afterlife, I will participate in some capacity, I hope. Maybe as a guitar player.”
by Paul Freeman [2006 Interview]
In 2002, Gordon Lightfoot hovered near death. Once he recovered, the superlative singer-songwriter eagerly hit the road again.
-snip-
Lightfoot emerged from the Toronto folk scene in 1964. He recorded five albums for United Artists, followed by 14 for Warner/Reprise, completing his contract there in ‘98. A couple of years later, he had enough material for an indie release. But at a charity concert, he was struck by a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. Multiple surgeries and hospital stays were needed to keep him alive. The illness, which required a tracheotomy, affected his voice and hearing, and legs and feet. It was a long road back.
-snip-
Ironically, Lightfoot’s near fatal illness allayed his fear of death. He says that’s because the six weeks following the hemorrhage are a complete blank. “It’s not bad once you get there. It’s like no worries, no cares. Just black. Total peace. I had no particular visions or religious experience of any kind. I was just gone.”
He doesn’t feel that experience necessarily contradicts his church upbringing. “The fact that I don’t remember anything does not mean to me that there is not an afterlife. I still feel I can look forward to that, if it truly is real. Until then, like most of us, I just try to be good to my neighbors, basically. That’s what I was taught. So if there is an afterlife, I will participate in some capacity, I hope. Maybe as a guitar player.”
And later in the interview, he reflected on his legacy. "There are so many wonderful writers whose stuff is going to last for a long time. To have some place, any place, in that pecking order would be more than enough for me.”
He will never be forgotten.
I want to link to an AARP article from three years ago, when he released a new album, Solo, mostly of songs he'd written in the months before that 2002 aneurysm: https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/music/info-2020/gordon-lightfoot.html . That article has video of one of the songs.
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