Revealing, intimate conversations with visionaries and leaders in the arts, science, technology, public service, sports and business. These engaging personal stories are drawn from interviews with the American Academy of Achievement, and offer insights you’ll want to apply to your own life.
All content for What It Takes® is the property of Academy of Achievement and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Revealing, intimate conversations with visionaries and leaders in the arts, science, technology, public service, sports and business. These engaging personal stories are drawn from interviews with the American Academy of Achievement, and offer insights you’ll want to apply to your own life.
Best Of - Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind
What It Takes®
42 minutes 3 seconds
2 years ago
Best Of - Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind
Gordon Lightfoot has died, at the age of 84. He spoke with the Academy of Achievement last year, and we featured that interview in an episode. To honor the legendary singer and songwriter, we are re-posting the episode today.
Gordon Lightfoot had a slew of international hits in the 1960's and 70's, including "If You Could Read My Mind," "Sundown" and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." His songs were also performed by some of the biggest stars of that time, including Jerry Lee Lewis, The Grateful Dead, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and Barbra Streisand. Lightfoot was still writing and performing into his 80's. In this interview you will find him as charming a raconteur as you might expect, given the nature of the songs he writes. He talks about his childhood in a small town in Ontario, and about his path to the top of the music industry. He describes the quirks of his songwriting process, and explains why he changed the words of "Edmund Fitzgerald" after he recorded it.
(c ) American Academy of Achievement 2022-2023
What It Takes®
Revealing, intimate conversations with visionaries and leaders in the arts, science, technology, public service, sports and business. These engaging personal stories are drawn from interviews with the American Academy of Achievement, and offer insights you’ll want to apply to your own life.