Gordon Lightfoot passed away last May, and we didn't do a Special Edition post for him.
That's because I was saving it for today. This week, when I am posting about some of the giants of Canadian music.
Gordon Lightfoot was a goddamn Canadian treasure, and there's no fucking way we weren't putting a fitting tribute into Maple Leaf March. Inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986, we aren't just saying things like this to say them. We're saying them because he is revered to this day across Canada, and he truly spoke to life in Canada in a lot of his songs.
This song was released in 1967, having been commissioned in 1966 by the CBC to commemorate the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, which is transcontinental, as part of a celebration of the Canadian Centennial.
Lightfoot's debut album was released in 1966, and he had a few top 10 hits as far back as 1962, so he was already a big enough deal to do this. This song was also included on his 1967 album The Way I Feel, and is a huge and epic song of labor and national pride.
He re-recorded the song for his 1975 greatest hits album Gord's Gold.
We could think of no greater tribute than a performance of this song from Reno, NV in the year 2000. This is one of the videos that is included as part of his official Canadian Music Hall of Fame record.
Not good enough? How about this 1972 performance from the BBC? It's different, equally beautiful, and spreads the Canadian pride.
OK, you want peak Canadian pride. I get it.
Here's Gordon Lightfoot performing "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" on Ottawa's Parliament Hill on the occasion of Canada's 125th birthday party.
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