This next artist has been filling
my life with musical happiness since before I could walk. He is coming to
Victoria in the Fall and I struggled with whether I was going to go. Although I ultimately decided to pass, I've still got a lot of love for this guy, and this next record is yet more proof of it.
Disc 636 is….Cold on the Shoulder
Artist: Gordon
Lightfoot
Year of Release: 1975
What’s up with the Cover? Gord’s got his
guitar out and judging by all them papers on the desk he’s in a song-writin’
mood. His shirt is also open, which for Gord indicates he means business.
But
who’s that woman in the shadows behind him – she doesn’t look happy, and
judging by how she’s positioned, she looks poised to give him…the cold
shoulder. Get it? Get it?
Budding
folk stars take heed: literally depicting an album title should be done with
extreme caution, lest you too end up with a cover like this one.
How I Came To Know It: This was just me drilling through
Gord’s collection when I went on a bit of a Gord spree a few years ago.
How It Stacks Up: I have ten of Gordon Lightfoot’s studio albums – I
thought I had eleven, but it turns out “Classic Masters” is just a best of
taken from four different early records. Consider me chastened. Anyway, I’d say
of the ten studio albums I’ve got, “Cold on the Shoulder” is fourth, edging out
“Summertime Dream” (reviewed way back in 2011 at Disc 294).
Rating: 4 stars
I’ve had my fair share of cold
shoulders, and I’ve probably earned most of them. “Cold on the Shoulder” the
album is misnamed, however. It is more like a warm smile than a cold shoulder.
That warmth originates in Gord’s
easy, back-of-the-throat vocals. He sounds like Bruce Springsteen if the Boss
could just relax and take it easy. His songs take that voice up and down his
undulating melodies with a smooth grace that isn’t about showing off the pipes
so much as it is about serving the song.
This easy-going vibe starts with
the first song, “Bend in the Water.” “Bend in the Water” is a hippy pastoral –
a song about nothing more than heading out into the backcountry for a day of summer
fishing and then an evening with a pleasant walk down by the river (with two
girls, no less – Pearl and Kitty).
The height of the album’s relaxed
feel is “Rainy Day People” which is
the happiest song Gordon has ever penned. This is a song about those people who
have a knack for giving comfort to people when they need it. Everyone needs to
have a few rainy day people in their lives – I am lucky enough to have several.
I could try to describe just what these folks do for the soul, but why reinvent
what Gord has already wrought so skillfully:
“Rainy day people always seem to know when it's time to
call
Rainy day people don't talk
They just listen til they've heard it all
Rainy day lovers don't
lie when they tell you
They been down like you
Rainy day people don't mind if you're crying a tear or two.”
The whole song has an easy feel,
and a rolling guitar plucking that perfectly suit the soothing quality of these
lyrics. I’ve heard people say that “Rainy
Day People” is a hokey song, not up to the standard of Lightfoot’s more important
work. I would say there isn’t any work more important than bringing a little
light into the life of someone who needs it.
While the style of the album remains
mostly free and easy, the songs do cover a range of emotion significantly
larger than simply feelin’ groovy. Surprisingly the title track “Cold on the Shoulder” isn’t sad at all –
it is more about not giving the cold shoulder than the opposite. Considerably
tougher is “Bells of the Evening” a
rare piano piece from Gord where he bemoans the loss of his love because of the
call of the road. Hearing him sing:
“I'm lost with no road signs to guide me
A slave to my whiskey and dreams”
Is a poignant reminder that a life
spent pursuing your art means leaving a lot of other things behind in the
process. This song reminds me a lot of “Carefree
Highway” where the road is both the sacrifice and the goal, wrapped up in
one. It certainly isn’t just “the freedom of the road’ as suggested on the
truly atrocious Wikipedia entry on Gordon Lightfoot, which seems to have been
primarily written by someone who judged each of his songs by the title. Another
notable miss – suggesting “Don Quixote”
is “about Cervantes’ famous literary character”). Hey Wikidoofus, “Don Quixote” is about social justice – it’s
a literary allusion used to make a point.
“Cold on the Shoulder’s” entry on social
justice is “Cherokee Bend” a dark
tale of murder at a trading outpost that becomes a microcosm about First
Nations losing their traditional way of life in the face of western settlement.
It is a strong and tragic tale, with a heavy bass note in the mix underscoring
its ominous tale of societal breakdown.
The record is not without its
warts, however, particularly with lyrics. “The
Soul is the Rock” is filled with strained metaphors that get so far off
their original course I’m not even sure what Lightfoot is talking about by the
end. “Fine as Fine Can Be” is
excessively cutesy and packed with ridiculous imagery like. Here are three
examples:
“You're like time is to space
You're like faith is to trusting
You're like blue is to feeling unkind”
I could’ve chosen ten other examples
just as bad. Artists tend to write this crap for their kids, which is somewhat forgivable,
so I hope that is what’s happened here. If Lightfoot wrote this song to score
with the ladies, I hope it failed and he went home alone and spent his time writing
a better song.
These bad lyrics almost put the
record down to three stars, but on balance there is just too much good
songwriting and general joy on this record to downgrade it for a few misplaced
lyrics. Besides, I have a lot of love for this record and rainy day lovers
don't hide love inside, they just pass it on.
Best tracks: Bend in the
Water, Rainy Day People, Cold on the Shoulder, Bells of the Evening, Rainbow
Trout, Cherokee Bend
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