The relationship between Mr. Lightfoot and Ms. Smith was beset by infidelities on both sides, with their arguments turning physical on at least one occasion.
In 1973 the couple retreated to a rented farmhouse north of Toronto where Mr. Lightfoot could write songs in peace (if one could call it that). One night, Ms. Smith went out to a concert with her girlfriends. Alone, jealous and with a suspicious mind, that night Mr. Lightfoot wrote one of his biggest hits, Sundown.
“I can see her lookin’ fast in her faded jeans,” the song went. “She’s a hard lovin’ woman, got me feelin’ mean.”
While Mr. Lightfoot’s career was heading up, his on-and-off relationship with Ms. Smith was breaking down. “We weren’t getting along,” said Mr. Lightfoot. “Our lives were going in opposite directions.”
In 1974, Ms. Smith contributed backing vocals to Murray McLauchlan’s song Do You Dream Of Being Somebody. Though Mr. Lightfoot and Mr. McLauchlan were friends, as working musicians they were competitors. Mr. Lightfoot saw Ms. Smith’s singing on Mr. McLauchlan’s recording as an act of betrayal.
After her final break-up with Mr. Lightfoot, the ambitious Ms. Smith split for California, perhaps with the words of Mr. McLauchlan’s song still ringing in her head: “Do you dream of being somebody, so the world will love you?”
In Los Angeles, the model Lesley St. Nicholas (a close friend from Toronto who married Steppenwolf bassist Nick St. Nicholas) set up Ms. Smith with a job as a personal assistant to lawyer Edward L. Masry, who was portrayed by Albert Finney in the 2000 Julia Roberts film Erin Brockovich.
According to Ms. St. Nicholas, Ms. Smith, a highly intelligent high school dropout, was “over-qualified” to manage Mr. Masry’s affairs. “They hit it off right away, but ultimately he had to let her go,” Ms. St. Nicholas told The Globe. “He told her she wasn’t subservient enough.”
While in Los Angeles, Ms. Smith also worked for the Rolling Stones and dealt drugs – two gigs not mutually exclusive. “I was at the top as far as vicarious living went,” she wrote about her association with the world’s biggest rock band.
As for the drug peddling, she was small time. “I never thought of her as a dealer, just well connected,” said Mr. Finkelstein, whose job co-managing Toronto singer-songwriter Dan Hill often took him to Los Angeles.
In California, Ms. Smith comfortably fell into a crowd that included, among others, Leonard Cohen, actor Seymour Cassel (who dubbed Ms. Smith “Butch” because of her husky voice) and Mr. Belushi.
Ms. Smith was with the bingeing, downward-spiralling actor-comedian for the last five days of his life. Visitors to his bungalow on the night he died included actor Robert De Niro and comedian Robin Williams. In her interview with the National Enquirer, Ms. Smith admitted injecting Mr. Belushi with a speedball dose before leaving the bungalow.
“I killed John Belushi,” she said. “I didn’t mean to, but I am responsible.”
For years the tragic episode haunted Ms. Smith, who felt if she had stayed with the comedian for the whole night, things would have turned out differently. “That was her remorse, her self-persecution,” Ms. St. Nicholas said. “If she had any regrets in her life, that was it.”
Ms. Smith attempted to turn her life around in prison, where she taught computer skills to fellow inmates that included three members of the Manson Family, a murdering hippie-cult. “She got along with Patricia Krenwinkel and Linda Kasabian, but Susan Atkins freaked her out,” Ms. St. Nicholas said. “Cathy was very tough, and she had a tongue on her. Atkins, though, scared her.”
After her release from prison in March, 1988, Ms. Smith was deported to Canada. In Toronto she did volunteer work speaking to teenagers about the dangers of drugs. In Vancouver, in July, 1991, she was arrested with two grams of heroin in her purse, for which she received a $2,000 fine and a year’s probation. “She struggled at times,” Ms. St. Nicholas said. “There were slip-ups.”
In 2014, after not seeing Mr. Lightfoot for some 20 years, Ms. Smith attended a concert of his at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. As he sang his 1972 song Beautiful, Mr. Lightfoot glanced her way. “Our fingernails were embedded in each other’s forearms, trying not to sob,” said Ms. St. Nicholas, who sat with her friend in the front row. “I truly believe they were the love of each other’s life.”
That night Mr. Lightfoot also sang Rainy Day People, a poignant 1975 song about “high-stepping strutters who land in the gutters.” He had written it on a drizzling day, with Ms. Smith in mind: “Rainy day lovers don’t hide love inside, they just pass it on.”
cathy smith-bernie fiedler-arthur usherson photo by
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cathy smith-arthur usherson photo by
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