Another Gordon Lightfoot album,
just five after my last one! “Cold on the Shoulder” ended up being a pleasant
surprise. This next album, not so much.
Disc 641 is….Summer Side of Life
Artist: Gordon
Lightfoot
Year of Release: 1971
What’s up with the Cover? Gord loves the Big
Head Cover, and has done a few good ones along the way (check out “Old Dan’s Records”
at Disc 458 and “Summertime Dream” at Disc 294 for a couple of
examples). “Summer Side of Life” did not inspire me the same way. He looks
earnest enough, but the whole thing has an “I just got out of prison” feel that
doesn’t wear well on Gord.
How I Came To Know It: Once again this was just me
drilling through Gord’s collection when I went on a bit of a Gord spree a few
years ago. I knew this album when I was a kid as well, as my Mom had it on
tape. I remember not liking it all that much – I should’ve thought of that
before I bought it.
How It Stacks Up: I have ten of Gordon Lightfoot’s studio albums. I
had reserved spot #10 for a different record (not reviewed yet), but “Summer
Side of Life” would not be denied; it is the worst.
Rating: 2 stars
Almost every Gordon Lightfoot
album I have has one or two tracks that make it onto either of his two “Gord’s
Gold” compilations, and “Summer Side of Life” is no exception. I should have
recognized the warning signs when I didn’t even like one of them, but the
completionist in me could not be denied.
“Summer Side of Life” sounds and
feels like any other Gordon Lightfoot album, but there is just something
missing. The easy picking style is a bit too easy. So much so it approaches
lazy, but I’m not sure that better guitar work would save most of these songs.
The opening track, “10 Degrees & Getting Colder”
provides a promising start, despite the unfortunate decision to use an
ampersand in place of a word. A song about a cold man hitchhiking through
Colorado, it paints an interesting scene that speaks of a larger story, but
doesn’t quite tell it. Since the song is about a man on the side of the road
that most people are hardly glancing at as they pass by, this makes sense.
Sadly the other efforts at social
commentary on the record are forced and trite. “Redwood Hill” is an environmental song where a personified Mother
Nature (yes, he goes there) sits on a hill and weeps for our future. It felt
very forced.
Similarly, “Nous Vivons Ensemble” is a song about trying to understand one
another, not like Rush’s “Entre Nous” but stripped of any emotional content.
Halfway through Lightfoot switches to very awkward French. I love a good
bilingual tune (Leonard Cohen’s “The Partisan” comes to mind) but if you can’t
do it well, please refrain from doing it poorly.
Of the two hits, I do love “Summer Side of Life” which has a great
guitar intro and an anthem-like quality to its story of love’s remembrance can
sting us when all that remains is the memory of how fine it once was.
The other hit, “Cotton Jenny” is either about carefree
love or heavy drinking – maybe both. Whichever it is, it comes off as trying too
hard. You can’t force yourself to relax, Gord. When I want a song that makes me
wonder if I’m putting a woman or a bottle to my lips, I’ll take Neil Diamond’s Cracklin’ Rosie over Gord’s Cotton Jenny every time.
And on it goes, with song after
song just missing the mark. “Talking in
Your Sleep” is the poor man’s “Worth
Believin’” (off of “Old Dan’s Records) and “Same Old Loverman” has Gord trying to be a sixties crooner, but instead
coming off as a bit of a creepy hippy. “Love
& Maple Syrup” feels like a guy who is trying too hard to make it clear
he’s Canadian – like a tourist festooning their backpack with too many flags. For
a good Canadian anthem from Gord, go with “Hi’Way
Songs.”
Of course, that’s on another
album, just like most of his best work. Ordinarily I’d keep this album just for the two
songs I like, but because I have “Gord’s Gold” as well, that reduces the damage
to just “10 Degrees and Getting Colder” and harsh as it is, I can live without picking up that particular hitch hiker.
No comments:
Post a Comment