The songwriter Bob Dylan says had a faultless discography: “I can’t think of any I don’t like”
At this juncture, it is probably pointless to set up just how impactful the cultural contribution of Bob Dylan is to this world. By now, his mountain of seismic singles, his reserves of resoundingly revolutionary records, a Nobel Prize, and even a Hollywood biopic do all the talking necessary when trying to sum up the mammoth career of a single songwriter named Bob. Simply put, without Dylan, the world would be a very different place.
His songwriting style completely changed pop music, as we know, with his uniquely confessional style infiltrating the very fabric of pop music and beyond. As his poetry gathered place and found its way deeper and deeper into the collective consciousness, Dylan’s position as perhaps the greatest poet of the 20th century rooted itself into the earth. The vision of the man as an unstoppable troubadour is now as present and immovable as a mighty redwood on our cultural landscape.
However, redwoods rarely stand alone, and Dylan often looks to his left and right to celebrate the contemporaries and predecessors who helped pollinate the fertile ground from which he grew. As one of the leading figures of folk, rock, and beyond, Dylan has found himself routinely asking about the creators he loves most in music, and, by and large, he has usually been happy to share that praise with a smile.
The Beatles, Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, John Prine, and Randy Newman are just some of the legendary names that have left Dylan’s lips when asked for a run of his favourite songwriters of all time. While, like any music lover, that fabled shortlist has grown over the years, there is one musician who has seemingly kept his place on the ever-changing scroll, Gordon Lightfoot.
Landing neatly between the areas of folk, rock and country, Lightfoot’s place in the world of music is confirmed by the praise of contemporaries Neil Young and Geddy Lee, the latter of which called Lightfoot the “greatest Canadian”. A run of incredible tracks in 1960s and ’70s which include ‘Early Morning Rain’ and ‘Ribbon of Darkness’ made him an undisputed frontrunner of the singer-songwriter movement. In fact, according to Dylan, he doesn’t have a single fault on his discography.
Speaking with Huffington Post when picking out some of his favourite songwriters, Dylan doffed his cap to “Lightfoot”, explaining, “Gordo’s been around as long as me”. When asked to name some of his favourite songs from the wordsmith, Dylan went on: “‘Shadows,’ ‘Sundown,’ ‘If You Could Read My Mind.’ I can’t think of any I don’t like.”
While the latter sentence may have a whiff of hyperbole, it’s clear that Dylan held him in the highest regard. He had previously shared a similar sentiment when speaking on the singer: “I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like. Every time I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever… Lightfoot became a mentor for a long time. I think he probably still is to this day.”
Lightfoot would respond in kind, telling Forbes in 2019: “He’s a huge influence on me actually, although my writing is nothing like his at all. It’s totally different, and yet he was such a huge influence on me.”
In the world of music, there are countless awards available. They range in stature and reward, but generally, they end up as nothing more than mantel-sized ornaments noting a career, or at the least a moment, where you were on top. What truly lives forever, cements your name in the history books and confirms a legacy that will outlive us all is the acclaim of your peers. Gordon Lightfoot’s career is littered with moments of admiration from the very best, but there comes no greater plaudit than the applause of Bob Dylan.
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