‘The older brother I never had’: Gordon Lightfoot remembers Ian Tyson

TORONTO –

Gordon Lightfoot says late country-folk singer Ian Tyson was a friend, mentor and one of the reasons he found early success in the music business.

“He was like an older brother that I never had,” Lightfoot said by phone from his home on Friday.

Tyson, who died Thursday at his ranch near Longview, Alta., leaves a legacy as one of Canada’s foremost singer-songwriters. But for Lightfoot, the man contained multitudes that he says not everyone had a chance to recognize.

The two were contemporaries in Toronto’s burgeoning 1960s folk scene, and since Lightfoot was five years Tyson’s junior, he looked up to him as an artist.

He says he first saw Tyson playing at Yorkville’s First Floor Club around 1963, and was struck by his live performance.

“I remember how impressed I was with his guitar playing, first of all, because he was a brilliant guitar player,” Lightfoot said.

“I always tried to learn from what I heard him doing, but was never able to perfect it.”

They would become close friends, however, with Tyson helping Lightfoot sign to the same management and recording Lightfoot’s song “Early Morning Rain” as part of Ian & Sylvia.

“Ian really was responsible for getting me started in the music business,” Lightfoot added.

But they were also fierce competitors at times, he acknowledged, as Lightfoot’s career caught fire and Ian & Sylvia found their name as pioneers of the movement starting to be eclipsed by a growing folk scene that included Lightfoot, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.

“At one point I felt very badly because I felt that I was drawing ahead of Ian a little bit,” he said.

“People were very competitive in those days — they had to be. I mean, the folk music revival had its own chart in the trade magazines at that time.”

Despite their professional sparring, Lightfoot says their friendship endured through the years. They attended each other’s weddings, performed one another’s songs and ran in Toronto social circles together with Ronnie Hawkins.

“He was just remarkable, generous, fun,” Lightfoot said.

“He had his ups and downs. He rode life’s roller-coaster, like some of the rest of us.”

Tyson’s early work included penning “Four Strong Winds” as part of Ian & Sylvia, a song that in 2005 was voted the most essential Canadian song of all time in a CBC Radio listener poll.

After the dissolution of Ian & Sylvia, Tyson turned to writing traditional country music, building his name as a chronicler of western Canadian cowboy culture through his songwriting.

Tributes to the musician have rolled in from Jann Arden, Ron Sexsmith, Randy Bachman, Paul Brandt and Brett Kissel, who said Tyson put Canadian music on the map.

Kissel added: “The world lost a great artist, songwriter, and most of all — a great cowboy.”

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 30, 2022.