Happy Birthday, Gordon Lighfoot!

Happy birthday Gord.

[snip]

Dear DB,

If you happen to read this topic again, please drop me an email at webmaster@corfid.com.


[This message has been edited by Florian (edited October 31, 2000).]

Happy Birthday Gordon, have loved your music from day one and hope you continue to make wonderful music forever.

For all of the years of enjoyment, wonder, and inspiration, Gordon, I thank you. To have this opportunity to actually say so to you, under the guise of a Birthday Greeting, is just to wonderful to pass up. Happy Birthday Gordon!
...and many, many more.
Harold Cameron

[moira]

I have been listening to you since you I was 7 years old (1972) when my dad played all your music on an 8 track in his car. Your music helped this little girl deal with the pain of her parent's breakup. You sang of love and love lost and understood. Thank you for your gift to the world. Your music will always hold a special place in my heart and memories.

Love, Moira

Gord,
I've enjoyed your music for many years and just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. I'm in the US military and travel around alot--saw you in Sante Fe in '99 and looking forward to seeing you in Alexandria in May '01. All the best...many more!!

Lt Col Joe Pugliese
Virginia

[Grace]

Gordon, Accept my wishes for a wonderful birthday. I must tell you that the highlight of my life was seeing you in Cedar Rapids and presenting you with the framed counted cross stitch of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". I am so blessed by your insight and music...my dream is to someday sit with you on a one to one and just talk about you and your insights and music. Thank you for bringing your dreams to life through your music. I so appreciate you and what you do....may your birthday be filled with memories to forever cherish.
Grace Orvis
orvisgrace@hotmail.com
Iowa

[isabella]

Dear Gord,

Happy Bithday.Thank you or the love and light that you and your music has brought into my life over the years of my apprenticeship in sorrow and acceptance.Those experiences, either good or bad,leave us with the choice to learn from them, pass them on or live our lives without emotion.Thank God, you chose to share yours with us.We are truly grateful.
As a Canadian now living in Ireland, your music keps me grounded, reminds me of my roots and encourages me to dig deeper into the soil that I have planted the tree which is my life.May you always be a leaf blowing on my tree and may we both always feed the need in each other that is he human condition.
The UK wants you Gord.We want you bad..so get your little cannuck butt over hear so we can show you our appreciation.
A Winters Night with You for me this year will be without snow but at least, I can live in the moment thanks to your music.
I wish you love in abundance, wisdom in adversity, and much health.

Love,

Isabella

Dear Gord, Every time you were in Thunder Bay I was somewhere else. Oh how I wanted to meet you. I hav every song book and tape or at least most of them. How do you thank someone who has been a lifetime of inspiration as you and your music have been to me. You are clearly unequaled Gord and it gives me such pleasure to add to this list of friends and admirers in wishing you the best birthday ever and many more. I learned to play the guitar when I was 14 and finger style so I could play your style. I bought a big old D-18 and spend many hours pickin out those highway songs and singin them as well. I became an entertainer and started out singing Lightfoot songs in coffee houses halls and bars and right up to this day your songs are the most popular. Every song has such meaning especially songs like "son for a winters night" and spanish moss to mention a couple. I still live with the hope to see you in person someday and once again I wish you the smoothest road and the bluest skies ever. sincerely a fan for life, Cliff Redden , RR#3 Thunder Bay Ontario Canada P7c 4v2

Gordon:
I've enjoyed your music for many, many years. My favorite is the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. You are without doubt the most gifted lyricist ever. Your stories of life experiences are always true to the heart. The best. Here's wishing you a blessed and joyous Birthday - may you enjoy many more.
Johnfirebird

[Gerald Kandestib]

Gordon,
After hearing Spin, Spin on the radio in 1966/67, I saw you at the Ontario Pavillion at Expo 67. From that time, I've gone through 33 years of life listening to, playing and completely enjoying your music. Thank you for giving me such a precious gift. I go back to the old times in Montreal: Cafe Andre, New Penelope Coffee House, etc. and I rememeber everey time I caught your act like it was just yesterday. We'd love tou see you on Montreal the first chance you get. Until then, be well and Happy 62nd birthday.
Gerald Kandestin, Montreal

[rosamc1022]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GORDON LIGHTFOOT!!! YOU ARE MY FAVORITE SINGER AND SONGWRITER - NO ONE COMPARES WITH YOU - GOD BLESS YOU ON YOUR BIRTHDAY, AND MANY MORE HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!!!

Many happy returns,Gordon! Health, wealth,
happiness, I hope you have it all. I'm
looking forward to seeing you at your
concerts in Massey Hall.

Clear skies!

Susan Rappoport

Happy birthday from Switzerland

Herzliche Glückwünsche zu Deinem runden Geburtstag dieses Jahr! Seit vielen Jahren hast Du auch in der Schweiz viele Freunde Deiner Songs, die in die Musik- und Kanadische Geschichte eingegangen sind!

Gute Gesundheit und viele neue songs wünscht Dir Bruno St. Gallen Switzerland

Gordon, my wife and I just saw you this evening at the Honeywell Center. You sounded as great as you did when I saw you about 20 years ago. Thanks for a wonderful evening and a lifetime of memories.
Have a Happy Birthday !

Dear Gordon: Thanks for so many wonderful songs. I remember "If you could read my mind" the best. I loved it when I first heard it, I sang it in small shows and college concerts in New England and other locales over the years, always feeling the intensity of the emotion in that song. When I was getting divorced five years ago, (that is when the news first hit me), I took my kids to a playground to play, and I also brought my guitar. I played that song again, this time with a feeling that can only come from living an experience similar to what the song tells. It was such a comfort to be able to express my loss by singing your song. Over the last thity years that I've been playing guitar and writing songs, you have always been an inspiration. I first saw you at the Academy of Music in Pennsylvania, around the time of the "Sundown" LP. Great, incredible music. My girlfriend at that time, who was familiar with your music, said, "Wow, I remember when Gordon Lightfoot was only solo or with just a bass player". I was in the U.S. Coast Guard at the time, and I was desparately trying to get better on the guitar, (having played for only about two years or so then), and she took me to a little music store to by the songbook for "Sundown". I still have it. In fact I was playing "somewhere U.S.A. last night, figuring out the lead patterns, and also playing the melody to my six year old son as he was trying to fall asleep. My middle son says I should go back to singing and I'd be a much happier man, and I believe he is right! My daugher, who is the oldest, and who is into the music of her generation, also says to me she loves "Ghosts of Cape Horn", "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", "If You Could Read My Mind", and so many other songs. She's been to your concerts a couple of times. I'd like to take the boys sometime God willing. The other most unique story I have about your music is that while I was playing in a lounge in the former Holiday Inn in Springfield, MA (it used to have a restaurant at the top which rotated 360 degrees while people ate, drank and listened to music); I was singing the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, (which though it belongs to you has in the past made me pretty well known in the region), and then this salesman, who I guess traveled the country at the time and didn't listen to the radio much, came up to me and told me that the song really struck him in an emotional way because though he had never heard your song until he heard me sing it that night; he had been on the shore of the great lake where the tragedy occurred, in a camper, listening to the weather and news reports, and had contemporaneously perceived the tragedy by listening to it on the radio that night...that was really incredible to me. I wonder how long it would have been before he actually heard you sing it. Probably not too long. I've also always loved singing "Song For A Winter's Night", "Circle of Steel" "Fine as Fine Can Be", "Pussywillows-Cattails", "Affair On Eighth Avenue", "Early Mornin' Rain", "I'm Not Supposed To Care", "Carefree Highway", "Sundown", "14-Karat Gold"(you must have written that song for guys like me who need to try to sell their songs a little bit harder! "Now and Then" "Canadian Railway Trilogy" "All The Lovely Ladies", etc., etc., etc. I can truly say that your songwriting style is absolutely incredible, though I enjoy many types of music and am inspired by many artists; if you were to sit and listen to me play the songs which I write, you would see echoes of your style...you have been the best music teacher, (and coach, I still get a grin on when I read the notes at the bottom of one of your songs where you instruct the novice player in how to get the effect, saying you can finger pick, and if you can't do that you can use a flat pick, and if you can't do that...get a job!" You can't believe how much your talent and blessings of your music have meant to me and my children all these years. I have not echoed you in one way though, and that is that I've never really tried to sell my songs yet, I guess I was lacking confidence or got distracted by my marriage, or by my now chosen profession (God gives us one face...and we make for ourselves another), and so they sit in the safe except when I do a local show or something for the kids. Because your music has been such an influence, I hope to record and sell my tunes, and that some day you can hear, on the radio, the influence you have had on me. It would be great to have the chance to have you hear it, not for any help, or assistance, or critique or anything self-serving, but just so you could see the quality of your inspiration. You are a man who is many times blessed, deservedly so, and God Bless you forever sir. It was quite a beautiful experience to access this website and see the many fans who have written to you for your birthday. Add me to the list Gordon. I pray and wish for you on your birthday and for every day that you will always have the best of everything, the blessings of God, the love of your family, fans, health and happiness all the days of your life. Though it's just a fan's, and a songwriter's wish, to meet you sometime, and of course to get a chance to hear you sing again many more times. You've still got it in a big way Mr. Lightfoot, and you always will. You know, I sing "Home from the forest" some times and it makes me think about my grandfather, my dad and my children and how life is so uncertain as to how we all end up. I have a hard time getting through that song these days because it is so emotional to sing it. When I was a younger man with no children of my own, I understood some of your songs, but I was unable to really feel the emotion until years later, with experiences of life to add to the singing! What I can't get over is the fact that as a songwriter you had so much depth to your music and lyrics at such a young age. It had taken my about 25 years to even come close in most respects, never mind actually understanding the feelings behind the words. Anyone can read a great poem or song lyric, and feel some of what the writer is writing. You however created such incredible lines, at such a young age that it is truly phenomenal. I don't think you need to hear anymore of such praise, as you probably hear it all the time to the point that you are tired of it. But I am thankful for this forum to express these thought to you, especially on the occasion of your updoming birthday. This is because I have not had luck in getting to say these things in person before, (since when I sent you a letter and some unsolicited tapes by mail, and also through your road manager at a local concert; I realized that you must be bombarded with this stuff by the thousands). So I just gave up trying to contact you. I still hope someday to meet you, preferrably with my three children at a concert sometime so that they can say that they too met you. Though it is still only a dream to me, I hope that you will be able to hear some of my better songs, like I said earlier, so that you can see the effect of your inspiration, your teaching of me without even trying. This would not be to solicit your comments, or critique, or your help, but just so you can see once again, how incredibly you have affected this "North American's Life". Well, I guess I've told it pretty much like it is, and I wish you the very best, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! : ) PS -By the way, your birthday and my dad's are only a couple of days apart, as is my parent's wedding aniversary. I wrote a song about them partly inspired by your style called "And their Golden Wedding Rings". They've been married about 59 years now, and I wrote it on the occasion of the 50th annivarsary. Anyway, God Bless, and remember to "Go first in the world...and pity the stranger who stands at your door." And though I've had to "trade off my (his) Martins" over the years to keep the rent paid, it's been a "carefree Highway", long and happy for the most part, thanks in part to your music. I do have one thing to ask of you though and that is, if you can, and only if you remember the thoughts I've written here today, that the next time you take the stage, or even pick-up a guitar at home or in the dressing room to sing a song for a minute, please be sure to play at least one song especially for me and my children sometime Gordon. The request is "Home From The Forest", for Tom, Caitlynn, James and Joseph. You will always be truly remembered well and dearly loved for you musical gifts to us all. If I ever make it to the "big time" (I've only been a big fish in a small pond in 'Show-Biz'), I'll be sure to tell it like it is as to your influence and inspiration, not for what it may get me, but for what it says about you. Sincerely, Tom Abdow - Just another Songwriter.

[leslie owens]

Happy Birthday Gord-here's to many more!
Saw your concert on the CBC special on Oct. 22--Thank You!

ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou Mr. Gordon Lightfoot!!!!! We went to your spectacular concert in Columbia, Missouri last night (11/5) and were treated to a most perfect performance by you and your superior band! We decided that one thing that made it so wonderful is that you sang your songs just as we remember them, not jazzed up and changed around to make them 'modern'. What fun to experience your sense of humor (hey-you're a real person) ! After so many years of playing your Gord's Gold album down to the white, I finally got to see and hear you in person and you were even better than ever. I found myself crying at the end because it was over much too soon. I'm still humming.
May you have oodles of birthdays to come, filled with inspiration for more golden hits that we can love and sing along with. Thank you for all your tender love songs, your fun "toe-tappin" songs, and ballads that have lifted me up over the years.
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY GORDON LIGHTFOOT! WE LOVE YOU!!!
~elena & stanley

Happy Birthday Gordon Lightfoot. Thank you for the timeless hours I have spent with your music. My father captained freighters on the Great Lakes; my husband's grandfather ran a railroad and we have both spent (and still spend) our best hours tilting at windmills. For more than 30 years, your music has articulated our heartsongs in a way no other artist has accomplished. Happy birthday Gord.

Dear Gord,
My wife and I have been listening to, and loving, your music since we married in 1972. Our favorite album of that time was If You Could Read My Mind. Since then, we've bought everything you'vr done that we could get our hands on. We listen to other music as well, but you are and will always be, our favorite. You've provided the soundtrack of our lives. We saw you in Louisville at the Palace Theater, about the time of the Dream Street Rose Tour, I think. We love you. God Bless.

Happy Birthday Gordon. I truly wonder if you are aware of the dreams and feelings you create in people who listen to your music. As humble and contemplative as I am, it brings pure exhaltation to hear your words. Have a wonderful Birthday. I am getting married in a couple of years, would give anything to have your talent there!

dear gordon:
have a vary happy birthday !
and may god give you all the hart-warming
fellings that you gave us with your music
love
the appel family from ISRAEL

Happy birthday. Thank you you are one of my favorite singers.
From Shaemus Robert Dirty Moccasins 10 And Pfeifer-Jones Hennigan.

Happy birthday from Fairbanks, Alaska! Jerry says hi too. Hope you get up here soon! I also wanted to let you know that I ordered the D18-GL. CAN'T WAIT TO GET IT.
Again, happy birthday, and thanks for all the tunes!
Sheldon

Happy B-Day Gordon!! You music is wonderful! Hope I get the chance to meet you at Milwaulke Wisconsin next year in April. Have a great day!!

Well Dearest Gordon: It has been albeit, perhaps over 35 years that your music has "Sewn seams through all my hopes, through all my dreams.." Many, many live dates and many repairs to my soul and heart on those dark and stormy nights. I think that it is wonderful, that this techno-tool, can bring a united greeting, and humble inter-continental Thank You for all that you have given. As I write this, I reflect back to The Troubador, and Rick escorting me back stage. In my life, I have had the privilage of meeting many talented contributors, from screen, stage, canvas, and audio, and none, rendered me with as much shy gratitude, as my respect for you. I recall the days with Red Shea, John Stockfish, and I realize, that your albums, the shows I have been to, create a timeline of my life.
Bless you and the guys!
Christie Molnar-Love