Canadian music legend Gordon Lightfoot dies at age 84

Canadian music icon Gordon Lightfoot died Monday at the age of 84.

Victoria Lord, a representative of the Lightfoot family, said the musician who wrote and sang classic ballads like “Early Morning Rain” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” died at a Toronto hospital.

The cause of his death was not immediately available.

Lightfoot, a product of Orillia, Ont., rose to fame in the early 1960s after a move to Toronto allowed him to meet fellow folk singers Ian and Sylvia Tyson. They became great admirers of his work and covered two of his tracks.

His 1965 debut album “Lightfoot!” ushered in a new folk voice. By the turn of the decade, he eased into the pop scene, making his first appearance on the Billboard chart with 1971’s “If You Could Read My Mind.”

Lightfoot’s popularity peaked in the mid-1970s when both his single and album “Sundown” topped Billboard — his first and only time doing so.

Musicians from across North America were among those who took to social media to pay tribute to Lightfoot, including fellow Canadian Bryan Adams.

“Once in a blue moon you get to work and hang out with one of the people you admired when you were growing up,” Adams wrote on Twitter. “I was lucky enough to say Gordon was my friend and I’m gutted to know he’s gone. The world is a lesser place without him.”

This one is really hard to write. Once in a blue moon you get to work and hang out with one of the people you admired when you were growing up. I was lucky enough to say Gordon was my friend and I'm gutted to know he's gone. The world is a lesser place without him. I know I speak… pic.twitter.com/GsFOwEGnrq

— Bryan Adams (@bryanadams) May 2, 2023

This song writer— truly walked among the greatest. His Songs woven into the fabric of our every day lives. We all know the words, even if we don’t think we do. What a legacy you leave behind. Steady on #gordonlightfoot

— Jann “stop live horse export” Arden (@jannarden) May 2, 2023

In 2019, I recorded a cover of Gordon Lightfoot's haunting "If You Could Read My Mind" for my Runaway Horses 30th Anniversary box set. https://t.co/ACT4InvEJt
It's one of my favorite songs.
RIP #gordonlightfoot pic.twitter.com/s6cRWFh9Jx

— Belinda Carlisle 💙 (@belindacarlisle) May 2, 2023