Music Blog

Peaceful Waters

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

This week at Glyn Wilton’s Mixed Music Bag,
he’s asking us to write about a song in which
the title or a line mentions the current month. 
Here’s my October artist and his song.

© Rolling Stone

Here we are, October 29, one more month almost gone and another Mixed Music Bag monthly challenge in the books. I wonder what Glyn has up his sleeve for 2026!

Canadian folk singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot was born in 1938 in Orillia, Ontario. He achieved international fame for his poetic songs, including “If You Could Read My Mind,” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. He began performing as a child, and as young man studied jazz and orchestration at Westlake College of Music in Los Angeles. Lightfoot gained attention as a songwriter when artists like Peter, Paul and Mary, and Elvis Presley had hits with his early songs, such as “For Lovin’ Me” and “Ribbon of Darkness”. He eventually moved to Toronto where he became a prominent figure in the folk scene before achieving a major recording career. His first solo album, Lightfoot!, was released in 1966 and he became known as “Canada’s Bard”. In the 1970s, he saw widespread popularity with hits like “Sundown” and “Rainy Day People”. Gordon Lightfoot was known for his prolific songwriting, creative storytelling, and resilience in the face of critical health issues. He passed away in 2023, performing until the end.

The song I’ve chosen to close out October is “Peaceful Waters”, a beautiful piece released as the B-side to the 1966 single “The Way I Feel”. This Gordon Lightfoot song is described as having an unusual, non-traditional structure that deviates from the typical verse-chorus format. The track was recorded for his debut album on United Artists and showcases his voice and guitar playing. The song’s lyrics are said to express a hope for peace. It’s been said that the title, “Peaceful Waters”, only appears in the final line, making it a challenge for listeners to find the song based on its first line, “The dead leaves of autumn…”. 


This is “Peaceful Waters” by Gordon Lightfoot


LYRICS

The dead leaves of autumn
That cling so desperately
Must fly before the cold October wind
Their simple life is ended
Must they be born to die again?

Oh, may the light of freedom shine
For all the world to see
And peace and joy to all mankind
Through all the years to be
For soon the leaves will die
And the long hard wind will blow
May this world find a resting place
Where peaceful waters flow
Songwriter(s): Gordon Lightfoot

Mixed Music Bag 2025 – Heavy Horses

Big thanks to Glyn Wilton for hosting Mixed Music Bag each week. Please be sure to follow the link and check out Glyn’s site.

Thanks for joining me today for a look and a listen.

See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2025

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy Richy and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

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