After a lovely four day weekend it
was back to the workin’ world today. That’s OK though, because I am a glass half
full kind of guy, and I had Gord to keep me company there and back again.
Disc 869 is….Gord’s Gold
Artist: Gordon
Lightfoot
Year of Release: 1975 but featuring
music from 1969-1975 (and even 1966-68 if you count the re-recorded versions of
earlier tracks).
What’s up with the Cover? This cover tells me two things:
- No one does a ‘giant head’ album cover
like Gordon Lightfoot. Just look at that beautiful man staring cool and confident
out into the world.
- Who Star Lord’s father is in the “Guardians
of the Galaxy” movie.
How I Came To Know It: My mom owned this album on vinyl
back when I was a kid. She played it a lot, and so did I. It was one of a
handful of records from my mom’s collection that would get in regular rotation
alongside my brother’s KISS and Blue Oyster Cult collection.
How It Stacks Up: This is a compilation album so it doesn’t
stack up. However, as compilation albums go it is a hell of a lot better than
the risible “Gord’s Gold Vol. 2” (reviewed way back at Disc 107).
As an
aside back at Disc 107 I wasn’t yet doing the “What’s Up with the Cover?”
feature. That’s too bad, because I would have enjoyed savaging Gord’s grandpa
sweater and mom jeans.
Ratings: compilations don’t get a rating.
Like I said in the teaser, I am a glass half full
kind of guy, but it wasn’t always so. I wasn’t a happy kid. Not miserable or
anything, but definitely more on the quiet side. I did a lot of my learning
about the world through books and music back then, and while I’m hardly quiet
anymore the books and music have stuck.
Gord’s Gold was a big part of that early experience.
This was the Gordon Lightfoot album everyone owned, and our house was no
exception. I’d slip it out of the paper jacket with all the reverence and
dignity that my brother Virgil had taught me to treat a record with.
Then I’d settle down when I was feeling low - or
maybe just thoughtful - and let Gord’s easygoing wisdom open my very young mind
(I would have been about five when this record came out).
The song’s on Gord’s Gold are like old friends,
except they are older than old friends. They are like relatives, like kind
uncles. These were songs that showed me that a big man could be gentle and relaxed.
Many of the lessons Gord taught I was too young at
first to properly understand, but accompanied by his even, slightly nasal tone,
and his trilling guitar, I emotionally understood what they were about and have
circled back to them year after year.
With “Don
Quixote” and “Circle of Steel” Gord
taught me about social injustice, from the perspectives of both those who fight
it and those who are ground under by it. As a kid I just liked the heroic tale
of Don Quixote. It was only later I recognized the social commentary. Years
after that I realized the original story was a comedy that Lightfoot had
repurposed. Whatever the tone of the story, Lightfoot gave me a romantic
appreciation for the quixotic long before I ever used the word.
Lightfoot taught me about debauchery with “Steel Rail Blues” (about a guy who
gambles away his train ticket) and “Early
Morning Rain” (about a guy who drinks away his air fare). I’ve only ever
managed the cab fare blues on this front, but I can attest to it being equal
parts regret and adventure, just like in the songs.
Gord introduced me to heartbreak as well, although
there is really no introduction to that until you’ve had it firsthand. Still, listening
to “Ribbon of Darkness” and “If You Could Read My Mind” I knew that
it was something great and terrible. When I was five I thought “Carefree Highway” was what happened when
it was over. Then I lost my first great love and learned what “the morning after, blues/from my head down
to my shoes” actually feels like. Thanks for the warning, Gord. Also, thanks
for the song when it happened so I had something to keep me company when I felt
most alone.
But the best thing “Gord’s Gold” ever taught me was
how to be happy. Happiness is a state of mind, and these songs put me in it. The
ones that really appealed were “Wherefore
and Why” and “Rainy Day People”.
The first song teaches you the secret to happiness:
“Come on sunshine, what can you
show me
Where can you take me to make me
understand?
The wind can shake me, brothers
forsake me
The rain can touch me, but can I
touch the rain?
“Then all at once it came to me,
I saw the wherefore
And you can see it if you try
It's in the sun above, it's in
the one you love
You'll never know the reason why.”
Sound like a lot of hippy mumbo-jumbo? Maybe, but
take a deep breath and read it again. Gord is saying, ‘relax and take it all
in.’ Try it, it works. And once it’s in you, you can pass it on, which brings
us to “Rainy Day People”:
“Rainy day people always seem to
know when you're feeling blue
High stepping strutters who land
in the gutter sometimes need one too
Take it or leave it, or try to
believe it, if you've been down too long
Rainy day lovers don't hide love
inside they just pass it on.”
I’ve been lucky to have a few rainy day people in my
life over the years, and on my better moments I try to remember to be one.
This record isn’t perfect. Gord inexplicably
re-recorded the earliest tracks (no doubt yelling “why the hell should people
recognize my hits!”). Fortunately in 1975 he was still at the height of his
talents, and the re-dos are solid. Also, the “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” is a bit too CBC after-school special
for my tastes.
Other than that though, this is some solid stuff,
from one of the original rainy day people in my life. It may be just a lowly
greatest hits album, but forty years later, “Gord’s Gold” still puts me in a
thoughtful and meditative mood, open-hearted and eager to learn.
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