Who can forget the great American humorist Mark Twain's classic quip, "The report of my death is an exaggeration"?

Last Wednesday evening, during a break at poetry night at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I took a walk around the block to clear my head. While doing this I was listening to "Summer Side of Life" by Gordon Lightfoot. As I was listening to the song I thought to myself that Lightfoot could die any day.

The 71-year-old Canadian music legend did have a brush with death in September 2002 when he suffered an aortic aneurysm.¹ It would leave him in a coma for more than a month.² Four years later, Lightfoot would suffer a minor stroke while performing onstage. Despite the stroke affecting his guitar playing he was back playing in front of a live audience a little over a week later.³

So I wasn't being morbid. You never know when your time is up and I wanted to take that moment to appreciate him while he was still amongst us.

Well, the following day word came that Lightfoot had suddenly died.⁴ However, this was news to the man who penned "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." Upon hearing his obituary on the radio while driving into Toronto following a dentist appointment, Lightfoot worked the phones. He began by contacting Canadian syndicated conservative radio talk show host Charles Adler, the man who informed him of his demise. Adler immediately put Lightfoot on the air and profusely apologized to him and his listeners. Lightfoot accepted the apology with good humor stating he was delighted with all the airplay his songs were now suddenly receiving.⁵

There is some debate as to how this hoax originated.⁶ Some accounts suggest a prankster hacked into the Twitter account of Ronnie Hawkins, another Canadian music legend and long-time friend of Lightfoot, and tweeted that Lightfoot was deceased.⁷ Other accounts state someone posing as Lightfoot's grandson called Hawkins' management office with the news and that it spread from there through Hawkins' wife.⁸

Things accelerated when David Akin, the National Affairs Correspondent for the CanWest News Service in Ottawa, received an alert from CanWest's wire service that Lightfoot had died. Akin placed the alert on his Twitter account.⁹ Shortly thereafter, several of CanWest's newspapers put the story on their websites including the Vancouver Sun, the Calgary Herald and the Ottawa Citizen only to be corrected once Lightfoot confirmed he was alive and well and had a clean set of teeth.¹⁰

Now death hoaxes are nothing new. Who can forget the great American humorist Mark Twain's classic quip, "The report of my death is an exaggeration"?¹¹ Indeed, Adler told Lightfoot, "Gordie, I think you had a Mark Twain moment." In fact, Twain had two of these moments. In 1907, a decade after Twain uttered his famous quote, a report appeared in The New York Times which feared he was lost at sea. Samuel Clemens obligingly pledged to conduct a full inquiry into the disappearance of his non de plume:

"You can assure my Virginia friends," said he, "that I will make an exhaustive investigation of this report that I have been lost at sea. If there is any foundation for the report, I will at once apprise the anxious public. I sincerely hope that there is no foundation for the report, and I also hope that judgment will be suspended until I ascertain the true state of affairs."¹²

Twain died less than three years later.

In the late 1960's, there was the rumor Paul McCartney had died in an automobile accident. However, this was a death hoax of a different breed most likely brought about by the consumption of hallucinogens. Some people actually believed McCartney had died and had been replaced by a Paul double.¹³ Beatle fans found various clues to support the idea Paul was dead such as when his back was turned on the back cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or being barefoot on the cover of Abbey Road. Even John Lennon got into the act when he wrote the lyric, "Those freaks was right when they said you was dead," in the song "How Do You Sleep?" which appeared on the album Imagine.

Sometimes a death hoax can get started with an honest mistake as when in 1982 People magazine reported that actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his work in The Godfather and Barney Miller, was dead.¹⁴ Well, nearly thirty years have passed and if you saw the Snickers commercial during the Super Bowl you know Vigoda is still a working actor.¹⁵ Indeed, there is a website exclusively devoted to telling us whether Abe Vigoda is dead or alive.¹⁶ As of this writing, Vigoda is still alive and turns 89 on February 24^th.

But with the internet facilitating both 24-hour news and social networking in real time death hoaxes seem to becoming more frequent. Barely two months into 2010, several celebrities have been the subject of death hoaxes including Johnny Depp, Lady Gaga and Taylor Lautner of Twilight fame.¹⁷ Yet this makes the Lightfoot hoax all the more intriguing. The three aforementioned celebrities are at the height of their fame. Lightfoot, while accorded reverential status in his native Canada, hasn't had a hit single in over three decades.

Yet while rumors of Lightfoot's death have been greatly exaggerated these rumors might prove to be of great benefit to Lightfoot's career. There should be a lot more interest in his upcoming concert tour which begins next week in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.¹⁸ Lightfoot's heavy presence on Twitter could spark a new generation of fans who will now have the opportunity to appreciate his music while he is still here.

Endnotes

1. http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/music/clips/4652/

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKSGV00kXvE&feature=related

3. http://www.onmilwaukee.com/music/articles/lightfoot.html

4. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100218/gordon_lightfoot_100218/20100218?hub=EntertainmentV2

5. http://www.cjob.com/News/Local/Story.aspx?ID=1197946

6. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2010/02/gordon-lightfoot-death-hoax-twitter.html

7. http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212285792.shtml

8. http://www.threeseven.ca/2010/02/gordon-lightfoot-is-not-dead-heres-what.html

9. http://davidakin.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2010/2/18/4459652.html

10. http://www.capebretonpost.com/index.cfm?sid=328522&sc=151

11. http://marktwainhouse.blogspot.com/2009/07/recent-celebrity-deaths-and-twain.html

12. http://www.twainquotes.com/19070505.html

13. http://www.indianinthemachine.com/waspaulmccartneyreplaced.html

14. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20254426,00.html

15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYmlgO53jno

16. http://www.abevigoda.com/

17. http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/lady-gaga-dead-irish-radio-102-104-fm-ad-lady-gaga-died-2566583.html

18. http://www.lightfoot.ca/2010.htm