The Seedy Backstory of the Woman Behind Gordon Lightfoot’s Yacht Rock Hit ‘Sundown’
Yacht rock is a smooth style of soft rock music that gained popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, some of the genre‘s songs have backstories that are less than mellow. Take for example Gordon Lightfoot’s hit “Sundown.” The seedy backstory of the woman who inspired the volatile tune is masked by its singalong lyrics.
What is the seedy backstory of the woman behind Gordon Lightfoot’s hit ‘Sundown?’
In the early 1970s, Gordon Lightfoot met a woman named Cathy Smith. They began a relationship, and the song “Sundown” documented their up-and-down love affair.
At the time, Smith was a well-known backing singer in the Toronto area. Lightfoot was married to Brita Ingegerd Olaisson, a Swedish woman he wed in 1963 and with whom he had two children. While he was married to Olaisson, Lightfoot kept Smith as a mistress from 1970 through 1973.
After dating Lightfoot, Smith continued a professional career as a backup singer. She would eventually gain international infamy for her involvement in the death of comedian and actor John Belushi in 1982.
She was reportedly with Belushi when he fatally overdosed at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles. Smith later admitted to injecting the comedian with a mixture of heroin and cocaine, referred to as a “speedball.”
In 1983, Smith was charged with involuntary manslaughter and several drug-related offenses. She pleaded no contest and served 15 months of a three-year prison sentence.
Upon her release from prison, Smith was deported to Canada. She reportedly took a job in Toronto as a legal secretary and she lived there until her death at the age of 73 in August 2020.
Who was Cathy Smith?
Cathy Smith was a backup singer. Her life was marked by her connections to iconic musicians including Gordon Lightfoot, and The Band, and a friendship with John Belushi.
It was Lightfoot’s most lucrative song and his No. 1 hit “Sundown” that thrust Smith into the spotlight. “I was sometimes crazy with jealousy,” Lightfoot once said of his relationship with Smith, per The Toronto Sun.
These feelings were documented in “Sundown.” Lightfoot once claimed that Smith’s behavior, including her infidelity, deeply influenced the song’s lyrics.
Smith also dated Levon Helm and several other members of The Band. She was reportedly “Fannie” in their hit song “The Weight.”
Cathy Smith appeared in the book Rock and Roll Toronto where she spoke of her interaction with The Band. “One night a few months after I met them, they rented a few rooms in the Seahorse Motel down on the lakeshore. We partied on into the night, and at one point I ended up in bed with Rick Danko.”
“In the middle of making love, Rick found out I wasn’t on the pill, and things (as it were) ground to a halt. He got out of bed and wandered on down the hall, leaving me lying there hurt and confused, then Levon walked into the room, and climbed into bed with me.”
Six weeks later, Smith discovered she was pregnant. None of the members of the band would acknowledge paternity, leading the child to be called The Band Baby. Smith would subsequently give the child up for adoption after its birth.
Is Gordon Lightfoot still alive?
Gordon Lightfoot died at a Toronto hospital in 2023 of natural causes, according to his publicist, per NPR. He was 84.
Lightfoot was instrumental in the Toronto folk music scene of the early 1970s as a performer and songwriter. He would go on to have a six-decade career in the music business.
Lightfoot would go on to have five top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in the ’70s, including “If You Could Read My Mind,” in 1971, 1974s “Sundown” and “Carefree Highway,” and “Rainy Day People” one year later. He returned to the top 10 with his opus “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” which hit No. 2 in November 1976.
The music of The Band and Gordon Lightfoot is in regular rotation on music stations that feature the Yacht Rock genre of music.
