Jeff Triplette is the worst NFL
referee in the league by a large margin.
He is a flag happy moron that can’t seem to accept the fact that
football games should, in fact, be decided by football players.
In the interests of full
disclosure, I did just watch him officiate over a 19-14 loss of my beloved
Dolphins to the Bills, so I’m a little raw.
Still, that pass interference call on Hartline with a minute to go was
bush league, and only the tip of the iceberg on the calls I witnessed tonight. Jeff Triplette, you suck.
Fortunately this next album does
not suck.
Disc 458 is… Old Dan’s Records
Year of Release: 1972
What’s up with the Cover? The Big Head Cover – a Gordon Lightfoot
favourite. As his collection of Big Head
Covers go this one is up there with the best of ‘em. Maybe only Gord’s Gold eclipses it in terms
of beard and craggy-faced goodness. He’s
even chewing on a stick so you know he is relaxed and easy, just like the
record.
How I Came To Know It: I’ve known Gord through the ubiquitous ‘best of’
album “Gord’s Gold” since I was a kid, but didn’t get into his individual
albums until later. I bought this one
about two or three years ago when I found it remastered by music loving label,
Rhino.
How It Stacks Up: I have eleven studio albums by Gordon
Lightfoot. “Old Dan’s Records” is near
the top, but I’ve already awarded Gord’s gold to “Don Quixote” back at Disc 110. I’ll award “Old Dan’s Record’s” ‘Gord’s
Silver’, or second best.
Rating: 4 stars
Having
lived so many formative years with only a Gordon Lightfoot best of package, I
tend to approach understanding his studio albums first from the songs I
recognize and then branch out. That is
what made “Old Dan’s Records” so surprising when I first heard it; some of the best
tracks were the ones I’d never heard.
This
starts with the first track and one of my favourite Gordon Lightfoot songs, “Farewell to Annabel” with its urgent
folk guitar strumming and its slow build into a beautiful banjo melody. Over it all is Gord’s signature voice. My last review was a Pearl Jam album, and I
couldn’t help but compare Gord’s voice with Eddie Vedder. Vedder sings with that slight vibrato in the
back of his throat which is instantly recognizeable and perfectly suited to his
style of alt-rock. Lightfoot is more
nasal but with the same slight quaver, and again – perfectly suited to his
folksy style. “Farewell to Annabel” pairs his tremulous voice with lyrics about 1972
style relationships, full of free love and that lack of judgment on the surface
that belies some seriously hurt feelings just below:
“How many nights did you cry
yourself to sleep,
Why did you hide what you knew
would not stay hidden,
How could you put yourself
through like you did?
I’m not the kind that would hold
you that way.”
Not the
kind, but he’d like to be. Even relaxed
hippies like Gord have feelings, and “Farewell
to Annabel” shows how they struggle with their own emotional needs.
There
are many other great deep tracks as well that have somehow not survived to Gord’s
anthology stage. “Mother of a Miner’s Child” is a love story that, unlike “Farewell to Annabel,” endures. It is about a miner and the wife he comes
home to every night. This is not Gord’s
life as a folk singer, but he captures the blue-collar honour rightfully
celebrated by the song’s narrator, who is proud of his family even as he hopes
for a better life for his son.
Throughout is the soft rolling of Lightfoot’s guitar, keeping time so
smoothly you can’t tell where one line ends and another begins.
And of
course, the Canadian in me revels in “Hi’way
Songs” which is a song about missing Canada when on tour. Full of “blue
Canadian skies” and the “shade of a
maple tree” it would be easy to fumble this song into empty jingoism. Instead, Gord keeps the song light and easy,
and yet still celebratory of his home country.
This is a song that makes you proud to be a Canadian, but in that
understated way we prefer to celebrate.
But let’s
not forget the album’s ‘hits’ (such as they are), and by ‘hits’ I mean “appear
on Gord’s Gold.” The title track, “Old Dan’s Records” celebrates the music
of the generation that preceded Lightfoot’s, as he reminisces about playing the
“foxtrot, jitterbug and jive” on 78s.
We often
poke gentle fun at “Old Dan’s Records.” Sheila refers to the song as “old dance
records” which always cracks me up. Having
grown up furtively listening (sometimes without permission) to my older brother’s
records, I often imagine that the character of Old Dan used to yell at Gord and
the other kids to “get the hell of out my records!” This always makes me laugh inappropriately
when Gord sings “If Old Dan could see us
now, I know he’d shout out loud.”
I
suspect the truth, however, is that “Old
Dan’s Records” is an homage to someone who helped Gord’s early appreciation
music, perhaps a love letter to someone who has gone before. Whatever the truth, it is a hell of a fine
folk song, so when I poke fun, I do it with a sincere affection.
The other
anthologized song, “It’s Worth Believin’”
is one of my favourite Lightfoot songs, a song about an easy love between two
people disrupted by suspicion and mystery.
The song opens:
“There’s a warm wind tonight and
the moon turns the tide
When the stars take their ride
she’ll be leavin’
Where she goes, I don’t know, she
won’t tell me what it is
That makes her act like this.
But I got a funny feelin’ that it’s
me
It’s worth believin’”
This is
actually a song about suspicion and emotional confusion but it is so gentle in
its presentation that it actually feels relaxing when you hear it, as the
couple calls in the cat and muses about walks on the beach, even as one of them
suspects trouble in paradise.
So many
standout songs had me close to giving this album five stars, but there are a
few ‘kitchen standards’ like “Lazy
Morning” about home life, drinking coffee, and relaxing that don’t hold up
to the same standard. Folk songs are
great when they sing about everyday experiences of the working man, but only if
they have some emotional or historical connection to something greater. It is the difference between looking at a
bowl of fruit and seeing the same bowl painted as a still life. The art of a still life is that the fruit
bowl has been imbued with a deeper resonance.
Sometimes Gord misses on this resonance – not by much mind you – but a
slight miss nonetheless.
Overall,
though, this record is a true win, and definitely the second one you should buy
by Gordon Lightfoot, if you already happen to won “Don Quixote.” You can skip “Gord’s Gold” – it’ll just slow
you down getting to the deep cuts and besides, you probably already own it.
Best tracks: Farewell to Annabel, Old Dan’s Records, It’s Worth
Believin’, Mother of a Miner’s Child, Hi’Way Songs
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