Gordon Lightfoot's Heartfelt Reflection: "If Children Had Wings"

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: A Love That Shines On

Speaker A: Sam.

Speaker B: There's a love I hold dear and it shines through each year and it

Speaker C: makes things seem different somehow

Speaker D: it's for better or worse it's for people who

Speaker B: thirst For a love that burns brighter

Speaker C: right now

Speaker E: and it shines on and

Speaker D: on Till all sadness is gone and if children had wings I would sing them their song

Speaker E: With a smile on

Speaker B: my face and a tear in my

Speaker C: eye Everything will be fine by and by.

Speaker A: Sa.

Speaker B: There were things that were said There were things that were done and a wife cannot stand too much pain

Speaker D: and what I thought was best Couldn't please

Speaker B: her much less but my love still

Speaker C: goes on that won't change

Speaker D: and it

Speaker E: shines on and on Till all sadness

Speaker D: is gone and if children Children had wings I would sing them their song With a smile on my face and

Speaker B: a tear in my eye Everything will

Speaker C: be fine by and by

Speaker E: and it shines on and on Till all sadness

Speaker D: is gone and if children had wings I would sing them their song With a smile on my face and a

Speaker B: cheer in my eye Everything will be

Speaker C: fine by and by.

Speaker A: Sam.