Acoustic Guitar Solo Performance

Gordon Lightfoot wrote this song after his marriage to Brita Ingegerd Olaisson ended in divorce. After the breakup, she took their two young children back to France. “If Children Had Wings” is a beautiful, heartbreaking reflection on the pain Lightfoot felt when he was separated from his children. Lightfoot often flew across the Atlantic on the supersonic Concorde to visit his son, Fred, and daughter, Ingrid. Perhaps Lightfoot dreamed of his children having wings so they could fly to him.

As a side note, the breakup with Oliaisson inspired one of Lightfoot’s most famous songs, “If You Could Read My Mind.”

I’m an ardent Lightfoot fan, yet I’d never heard this song until I found it on Pandora. recently. Its tender melody and lyrics captured my heart immediately, and I decided to play it here.

Song/Opening

Sa. There's a love I hold dear and it shines through each year and it makes things seem different somehow it's for better or worse it's for people who thirst For a love that burns brighter right now and it shines on and on Till all darkness is gone and if children had wings I would sing them their song With a smile on my face and a tear in my eye Everything will be fine by and by. There were things that were said There were things that were done and a wife cannot stand too much pain and what I thought was best Couldn't please her much less but my love still goes on that won't change and it shines on and on Till all sadness is gone and if children had wings I would sing them the song With a smile on my face and a tear in my eye Everything will be fine, fine by and by.