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Lightfoot turns 70
Article in the Orillia Times-Packet
Posted By RANDY LUCENTI, THE PACKET AND TIMES

Orillia's living musical legend turns 70 today.
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. was born on Nov. 17, 1938, to Jessica and Gordon Lightfoot in the Sunshine City.
As a youth, Lightfoot sang inthechoirof St. Paul'sUnited Church under the direction of choirmaster Ray Williams. During this time as a "boy soprano," Lightfoot competed in amateur talent shows on CFOR radio, performed in a high school quartet (The Collegiate Four) and in the annual Kiwanis music festivals.
Lightfoot remarked during one of his trips home that it was Williams who "taught him how to sing with emotion and how to have confidence in his voice."
As a teenager, Lightfoot studied piano and taught himself drums and other percussion instruments.
"I like to remember where it is that I come from," Lightfoot once told The Packet & Times.
When he turned 18, Lightfoot moved to California, where he studied at Hollywood's Westlake College of Music in 1957. He returned to Canada in 1958, and his musical career grew from there.
Lightfoot embarked on his first Canadian tour in 1967. From 1967-71, he toured through Europe and Australia. He curtailed his touring schedule in 1972 after contracting Bell's palsy, a condition that left his face partially paralyzed for a time.
It wasn't until 1971 that his own version of "If You Could Read My Mind" became a top- 10 hit. The song was originally featured on his 1970 album "Sit Down Young Stranger," which had not sold well. After the success of the song, the album was re-released under the new title "If You Could Read My Mind" to capitalize on the success of the song.
In 1974, his classic single "Sundown," from the album of the same name, went to No. 1 on the American charts. He followed up with such hits as "Carefree Highway," "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "The Circle Is Small (I Can See It In Your Eyes)."
Through the 1990s, Lightfoot released two albums and played about 50 tour dates a year.
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In the fall of 2002, before he was to play the second of two benefit concerts for Soldiers' Memorial Hospital and the Sunshine Festival at the Opera House, he suffered a near-fatal abdominal hemorrhage that left him in a coma for nearly two months.
He recovered and later returned to the music business with the album "Harmony" and an appearance on the television show Canadian Idol. He also made good on the Orillia concert he was forced to cancel due to his illness.
The musical legend has received 15 Juno Awards and been nominated for five Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998.
In 2003, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour. Lightfoot is also a member of the Order of Ontario, the highest honour in the province.
Despite his age, Lightfoot has announced a brief cross-country tour for next April.
Fans and friends of Lightfoot can go to orilliapacket.com and link to a special web collection of photos and stories to mark the occasion. There is also a fan space where Orillia area residents can post birthday wishes for Lightfoot.