Review: Documentary captures the music and craftsmanship of Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian folk legend
A review on the main page of the Internet Movie Database entry for the documentary ‘Gordon Lightfood: If You Could Read My Mind’ bears the headline “Not as good as it could have been but still pretty good” — which might be the most Canadian thing ever, next to Lightfoot himself.
Filmmakers Martha Kehoe and Joan Tosoni establish Lightfoot’s Canadian bona fides early and often in this profile of the legendary folk musician — making the case that if Lightfoot were any more Canadian, you could stick a tap in his leg and maple syrup would flow out.
Lightfoot, who was approaching 80 when he was interviewed for this film, is depicted as the consummate musical craftsman, toiling with his guitar and pen to hone each song until it gleams. He would then record those songs, his silky baritone a perfect instrument for the yearning and heartache contained in each track.
Kehoe and Tosoni go through Lightfoot’s history in chapters, attaching a song to each one like a mighty playlist. Starting with “For Lovin’ Me” (a song Lightfoot admits now is chauvinist), through “In the Early Morning Rain” and “Ribbon of Darkness,” among others, we see Lightfoot’s rise in the folk music scene in Toronto and later New York. Getting into his ‘70s ballads, like “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Sundown,” the movie looks at his stardom, the women he left behind and the booze that came close to killing him.
The capper, the one that gets the fans on their feet, is his 1976 epic “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” — which made a relatively recent Lake Superior disaster sound like an ancient mariner’s folk legend. (True story: Lightfoot wrote the song just two weeks after the ship sank, taking a Newsweek article for his inspiration.)
The admirers interviewed here are a roll call of Canadian musicians: Anne Murray, Sarah MacLachlan, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush, Tom Cochrane, Ian & Sylvia, Randy Bachman of Bachman Turner Overdrive, and Burton Cummings of The Guess Who among them. Alec Baldwin is also interviewed, for reasons known only to him, aside from being a big fan.
Lightfoot is a cagey interview subject. He’s willing to talk about the work of writing a good song, and reminisce a bit about the old days, though there are some subjects he deflects. One of those subjects is his affair in the ‘70s with Cathy Smith, the backup singer and groupie who inspired the vengeful lyrics of “Sundown” — and the woman who, in 1982, gave John Belushi the injection of heroin and cocaine that killed him.
The film culminates in three nights of concerts at Toronto’s Massey Hall in 2018 — the last on July 1, Canada Day, of course. In that recent concert footage, we see a frail, careworn Lightfoot, still playing the guitar with precision and force, that voice weathered with age but still evocative. That image, of Lightfoot as a professional artist devoted to creating great music, is what remains when the nostalgia and tabloid moments of this documentary fade away.
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‘Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind’
★★★1/2
Available starting Friday, July 31, in the Salt Lake Film Society “virtual cinema,” Not rated, but probably PG-13 for language, references to alcohol and drug use, and sexual references. Running time: 90 minutes.