CD Odyssey Disc 869: Gordon Lightfoot

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Best tracks:  Wherefore and Why, Bitter Green, Early Morning Rain, Sundown, Rainy Day People, Don Quixote, Old Dan’s Records, If You Could Read My Mind, Carefree Highway

CD Odyssey Disc 728: Gordon Lightfoot

A few days ago I thought I was done buying albums by both Pantera and the Rolling Stones. However, because of my last review (Pantera), and a friend’s recommendation (The Rolling Stones) I was out yesterday buying one more of each…but I’ll talk about those when I roll them.

Disc 728 is…. East of Midnight

Artist: Gordon Lightfoot

Year of Release: 1986

What’s up with the Cover? Artists should stick to their strengths on album covers. For, Gord this usually means putting his giant head front and centre. On those few occasions when you see his clothes, it should only reveal that he wears threadbare jeans and hippy sandals.

What Gord does not do is wear eighties club wear or try to channel his inner lounge singer. That’s because when he does, he just ends up looking like a drifter who rolled Don Johnson for his clothes.

How I Came To Know It: I grew up with Gordon Lightftoot, but I found this album in a discount tape bin at A&B sound in the early nineties. I believe it cost $2.95. Nowadays all tapes cost that but back in 1990 this was a good deal for a kid living on a student’s income and looking for a bargain.

How It Stacks Up:  With last year’s giveaway of “Summer Side of Life” I am now down to nine Gordon Lightfoot albums. “East of Midnight” ranks ninth.

Rating: 2 stars

O eighties production, is there any style of music you can’t wreck? Apparently not, as “East of Midnight” proves that even Canadian folk icon Gordon Lightfoot is not immune to its terrors.

The album starts out with a droning electric guitar that is so fuzzed up and drained of life that at first I thought it was a synthesizer. Gord tries to save the day with his vocals, delivering some laid back lyrics advising you to “stay loose” (also the title of the song). The problem is that with all the thin, non-committal instrumentation it is the kind of staying loose you might experience in an elevator. You know, the listless boredom brought on by songs that have been transformed into muzak.

Much of “East of Midnight” has this effect on me. Usually the offending instrument is that bane of all eighties albums; the saxophone. On at least half these tracks it pokes its ugly head out of the song to blare away three or four notes that at best should be sounded by a guitar and at worst should not be sounded at all. I imagine sessional sax players made quite a living, sauntering into the studio to blow a few notes, pretend like it was jazz, and then saunter off again looking for the next easy mark.

Gord’s vocals are pretty thinned out at this point in his career, but he sings with conviction and for the most part his lyrics and innate understanding of how to write a pretty melody keep these songs from total collapse. Songs like “East of Midnight” and “Let It Ride” aren’t the best on the album, but Gord’s lyrics manage to keep them above water.

When that collapses too, as it does on the album’s nadir “Anything for Love” you’ve got nowhere left to turn. What makes this song so truly terrible? For starters, the synthesizer/keyboard crimes are worse than anywhere else on the record. Mercifully there is no saxophone, but the pointless and excessive background vocals more than make up for the absence. The melody is the biggest crime; an uninspired regurgitation of the vacuous radio pop of its day. This is thrown up with the workmanlike disinterest of a town drunk looking to mitigate the next morning’s hangover before he hits the sack. As you might expect, it is way less appetizing the second time around.

You can’t totally blame Gord for this one though, because the songwriter (and producer) of this song is none other than David Foster, committing yet another of his many musical crimes. The lyrics, include the mail-it-in schlock of “I’d do anything for you/You’d do anything for me/We’d do anything for love” and sadly, this part of the song is Gord’s fault. Maybe that’s the best he could come up with when he heard the tune. Fortunately no other songs on the record are directly “Fostered,” although a couple sound like it.

Despite all this disappointment, Gord is too good a musician to miss the board with every dart, and there are a couple of tracks on “East of Midnight” that I really like. “Morning Glory” has a sad resignation about it that sees Gord on the other side of heartache. Gone is his carefree highway and free and easy love. This is a song about the aimless wandering of the heartbroken. It is a reminder that on the road you might be free to go where you want, but you’ve also got a lot of time to be alone with your thoughts, and that’s not always a pleasant experience. The production sucks along with the rest, but the song’s innate prettiness shines through anyway.

The other track I look forward to is “A Passing Ship.” The big empty eighties sound matches passably with the imagery of a ship out alone on a wide ocean. There is nary a saxophone to be found, and the electric guitar has a relaxed feel that at once conveys both motion and an uncertainty of direction. Lightfoot sings about the safe ports that we keep in our hearts through unsteady times:

“When the sea runs high,

Th’ sea runs wild and I’m unsteady,

And I think of you,

In the warmth of your home and family.

When love is true,

There is no truer occupation.

And may this gale

Blow us to the ones we love.”

For these two good songs and some other more nebulous reasons – probably a combination of familiarity and a feeling of accomplishment of discovering this album on my own – I still own this damn record. Unlike “Summer Side of Life” I won’t be parting with it, either.

Best tracks: Morning Glory, A Passing Ship

CD Odyssey Disc 641: Gordon Lightfoot

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.

Best tracks:   10 Degrees and Getting Colder, Summer Side of Life

CD Odyssey Disc 636: Gordon Lightfoot

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

CD Odyssey Disc 516: Gordon Lightfoot

I’ve had a very positive week so far.  I’ve been enjoying my work, and I’m only a week away from a much-anticipated holiday.  I’m just back from an enjoyable guitar lesson and I’ve got music in my heart.  Well that last part is always true, but sometimes it is closer to the surface than others.

Disc 516 is…. Dream Street Rose

Artist: Gordon Lightfoot

Year of Release: 1980

What’s up with the Cover?  Gord keeps it simple with a ‘here I am singin’ my songs’ shot.  Unfortunately, the low resolution and black and white look to the cover make it seem like it is one of those where I lost the booklet and have replaced it with a photocopy.  I can assure you this is the original, mediocre as it is.

How I Came To Know It:  As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve known Gordon Lightfoot since I was a kid.  I found a tape of “Dream Street Rose” in the bargain bin at A&B sound over twenty years ago – I think it was $3.95 or something like that.  I bought it because it was cheap and because I didn’t recognize any of the songs from my “Gord’s Gold” greatest hits package, so it would be new material for me.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eleven of Gordon Lightfoot’s studio albums. “Dream Street Rose” is not the strongest, but it holds up OK.  I’ll put it eighth or ninth.

Rating:  3 stars.

“Dream Street Rose” is the last of Gord’s “pre-mumble” albums.  It is not considered a classic, but it does show that artists can still bang out quality records many years into their career if they put their shoulder to the wheel.

In the case of “Dream Street Rose” the wheel is likely to be part of a ship’s helm, with Lightfoot continuing his long fascination with nautical themes.  I’m a sucker for nautical themed folk music, so this is fine with me.    The album’s best example is “Ghosts of Cape Horn” which starts with a catchy melody, whistled over some gentle guitar picking.  Lightfoot immortalizes the thousands of sailors that have died mostly nameless deaths braving Cape Horn around the southern tip of South America:

“Come all you old sea dogs from Devon

Southampton, Penzance and Kinsale

You were caught by the chance

Of a sailor’s last dance

It was not meant to be

And you read all your letters

From oceans away

Then you took them to the bottom

Of the sea”

I once met someone who had navigated around Cape Horn without power (i.e. sailed), not once, but twice.  He was the living embodiment of a salty sea dog, leathery with deep creases in his face full of salt.  He looked tough as nails but as “Ghosts of Cape Horn” underscores, even your best effort might not save you if you hit a bad patch of weather going around the Cape.  I like that Gord pays homage to these unfortunates even as he imagines them doomed to haunt the wrecks:

“See them all in sad repair

Demons dance everywhere

Southern gales, tattered sails

And none to tell the tale.”

Except you Gord, - you told their tale.  Maybe that will give them a modicum of respite from their weary haunting as a result.

On “Sea of Tranquility” Lightfoot sings about sailing from midnight ‘til noon, but you wouldn’t be sailing on that particular sea without a space suit.  Instead, Gord sings about the various ways to enjoy the natural world here on the earth by the light of the moon, which is both safer and more economical.  Maybe one day I’ll be able to visit the actual Sea of Tranquility if I live long enough.  If so, I’ll remember to pack the song to appreciate the experience.

While the album has its share of whimsical folk music, it is heavily influenced by country music as well, with typical songs of love and heartache.  This far into his career, Lightfoot constructs a beautiful song in what seems like an effortless fashion.  “Dream Street Rose” has a strong country music component, and while it is a simple love song, it is also a deeply optimistic one.  Sometimes your partner is temporarily away, and that just means you appreciate them all the more when they return.  The guitar work (Terry Clements on lead) is amazing as well, and rivals anything on Lightfoot’s more well-known records.  I’d love to be able to play a simple melody this beautifully one day.

“Whisper My Name” is less upbeat, and while it references plenty of wooing, it is with an expectation that love is ephemeral.  Sometimes all we’re left of relationships are the whispered names of those who’ve drifted out of our lives along the way.  Musically the song captures both the sadness and triumph of these old relationships as well.  not every love affair ends with the permanent romance of “Dream Street Rose” but that doesn’t mean they weren’t worthwhile in their way.

I know this album really well (for years it was one of my only Gordon Lightfoot albums other than Gord’s Gold) but I have to admit it is uneven in quality.  If it were on vinyl, side one would be considered great, but side two merely average.  Owning this originally on tape this was particularly annoying because it led to fast forwarding large sections (not on the CD Odyssey though – Rule #3:  a full listen, monkey!)  Ideally on a tape if it can’t be all good, you want the first half of side one and the second half of side two great.  That way you can just keep flipping it mid-way through.

Over the years I’ve just let it play through though, and as a result I’ve gotten to know the other songs and their subtleties have grown on me.  I think this record is a solid three star effort, and although not where I would point newcomers to Gord, I’d have no problem recommending it for someone well into his catalogue already.

Best tracks:  Sea of Tranquility, Ghosts of Cape Horn, Dream Street Rose, Whisper My Name

CD Odyssey Disc 458: Gordon Lightfoot

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

 Artist: Gordon Lightfoot

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

CD Odyssey Disc 294: Gordon Lightfoot

This next album is one that has been in my life a very long time, but has never gotten old. I've heard it on record, then on tape, and now on CD. Never on 8-Track though - I guess that's something to aspire to.

Disc 294 is...Summertime Dream

Artist: Gordon Lightfoot

Year of Release: 1976

What’s Up With The Cover?: It is a Gordon Lightfoot staple: the big head cover. This time we are additionally graced with Gord's hand, which for him is quite a bit of detail. I like this particular 'big head' cover. Gord looks thoughtful and just a little tortured, which is what we want our folk artists to look like.

How I Came To Know It: My Mom owns this on record, so I've known it since I was a kid. When I left for university I taped it so I could bring it with me (no doubt Interpol is still tracking me down for this crime against copyright). And then many years ago, I bought it on CD.

How It Stacks Up: I have 12 Gordon Lightfoot albums, but two of those are compilations, so really only ten studio albums in the strictest sense. "Summertime Dream" is one of his stronger records, but competition is fierce. I'd say somewhere between 3rd and 5th, depending on my mood, which today has me putting it into 4th.

Rating: 4 stars.

It has been over a year since I reviewed a Gordon Lightfoot album (the last being "Don Quixote" at Disc 110), and that is just too long to wait for Gord. As I've mentioned in previous reviews, he is one of the great Canadian songwriters, up there with Leonard Cohen and Neil Young. Of the three, Gord may not be the best, but he's been in my life the longest, which counts for something.

So has this album, as I noted above. I know most of the songs on "Summertime Dream" by heart, and as I drove around listening to this album for the last couple of days I was unashamed to sing along - even with the top down. As Robert Frost once wrote, "There must be something wrong/to want to silence any song." Of course, Frost had never heard me sing. But anyway, back to the review.

This album's main claim to fame is the iconic and tragic "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", one of the greatest folk songs ever written, Canadian or otherwise. I talked about it a bit when I reviewed "Gord's Gold Vol. 2", back at Disc 107, noting that it is only in its true glory in the original recording off of "Summertime Dream". Hearing it again just reinforces this opinion.

Some might wonder why the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald decided to cross Lake Superior so late in the season with the threat of bad weather. It would be easy to say it was for the money, but I think this song reminds us of the blue collar sensibility that the job must get done. It is a song about real men, facing the elements every day with stoicism and courage. That they came up short on the Edmund Fitzgerald's last voyage is no slight. The best line I quoted in the previous review, but it is so good it bears repeating:

"Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd've made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'em."

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is so famous, it often eclipses the rest of this record, which is a shame, because there are many good songs. In particular, the opening track, "Race Among The Ruins" a song about a failed relationship - a common theme on this album. The song is a bit accusatory in places, but it hits the mark early and often. The song is fast-paced for folk music and features Gord's whimsical guitar picking that is so easily identifiable. He sings high and nasal, but never loses power or gravitas. Even though the song is about bad decisions, it leaves you the impression he is being just as judgmental of himself as anyone else.

The song's title once inspired a writing exercise with my friend Tony and I one summer when we were unemployed in Powell River waiting for university to start again. I wrote a sonnet by the same title, and although hardly a prizewinner, I still think it was one of my better poems (the competition not being terribly fierce on this front). But, anyway.

Later songs explore old relationships from different points of emotional contact, with the nostalgic "Never Too Close" and the heartbreaking and deeply personal "I'm Not Supposed To Care", which paints the picture as a lost lover leaves the house for the last time. Gord opens with:

"I think you had somebody waiting outside in the rain
To take you away.
You got places to go - you got people to see
Still I'm gonna miss you
But anyway."

The damaged and defeated way he sings "But anyway" always gets me right in the gut.

Later in the record, "The House That You Live In" sees Gord more upbeat, doing the Canadian folk song version of Rudyard Kipling's "If". It is a list of advice to follow as you go through life, from the perspective of the struggling artist. There is a lot of good advice in the song, but here's some of my favourite:

"When you're out on the road and feeling quite lost
Consider the burden of fame
And he who is wise will not criticize
When other men fail at the game
Beware of strange faces in dark dingy places
Be careful while bending the law
And the house you live in will never fall down
If you pity the stranger who stands at your door."

The last two lights are repeated at the end of each stanza, and it always tickles my English Literature roots that the sanctity of the guest-host relationship is still alive and kicking 3000+ years into the history of western culture.

"Summertime Dream" might've been a five star album, but for a few songs that are overwrought - either musically or lyrically. In particular his political songs "Protocol" and "Too Many Clues In This Room" come off a bit preachy, with melodies not strong enough to sustain the average lyrical content. Otherwise, this is a solid record that continues to get considerable airplay on my stereo, many years after I first heard it.

Best tracks: Race Among The Ruins, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitgerald, I'm Not Supposed To Care, Never Too Close, The House You Live In

CD Odyssey Disc 110: Gordon Lightfoot

It has been a while since I invoked the rarely used Rule #5 in the CD Odyssey (allowing automatic review of a newly purchased CD). I have bought quite a few since starting, but I just prefer the random element. Mostly I just listen to new discs at least three times, then leave them in a "new" section for a while, and then file them and wait to roll them.

I am reviewing this one because a) I had just reviewed a bad Lightfoot compilation at Disc 107 and I had just reviewed a CD with a thoughtful whale song on it at Disc 109. Given these facts, and my rekindled excitement with Gordon Lightfoot (I bought four of his albums last weekend), it seemed a natural fit.

Disc 110 is...Don Quixote

Artist: Gordon Lightfoot

Year of Release: 1972

How I Came To Know It: I have known most old Gordon Lightfoot since I was a kid through "Gord's Gold". This is me finally collecting all of his studio albums - and I bought this one alongside 3 others ("Cold On the Shoulder", "Summer Side of Life" and "Endless Wire").

How It Stacks Up: Of the four I bought last weekend, "Don Quixote" is the best. Overall, I now have nine of Lightfoot's studio albums, and hungry for more. I think "Don Quixote" is probably the best of the nine (although "Old Dan's Records" might be its equal). Also it has, hands down , the coolest picture of Gord on the cover.

Rating: 5 stars.

Canadian folk simply doesn't get better than Gordon Lightfoot, and "Don Quixote" is Gord at his best.

This album came out in 1972, right in the height of Gord's ability. I love the raw sound of his voice and guitar in his sixties work, but by 1972 he has really honed in on his own unique sound. "Don Quixote" is blessed with simple, but beautifully toned production. Gord's voice sounds powerful, yet seemingly in a state of perpetual reverie. It draws you in, and speaks to you gently, but firmly about stuff that is important to Gord, and makes it important to you.

At the same time, his guitar has that signature sound, a playful plucking that perfectly matches the mood set by his voice.

This album is stacked with songs that many of us know, the most famous of which is the title track "Don Quixote". As a kid I absolutely loved this song, and knew all the words, even if I didn't quite get all the social commentary until later in life.

"Don Quixote" is one of the most singularly recognizeable folk songs in existence - and as the first notes strike you instantly know what you're hearing. At the same time, the lyrics are a beautiful mixture of themes.

On the one hand, Gord paints the story of a character that was traditionally comical, and makes him instead a tragic hero. At the same time, Lightfoot then takes Don Quixote's willingness to fight the unwinnable fight, and turns it into an anthem for the struggle of the common man as he rails against injustice. Here's one of my favourite parts:

"I have come o'er moor and mountain, like the hawk upon the wing
I was once a shining knight, who was the guardian of a king
I have searched the whole world over, looking for a place to sleep
I have seen the strong survive and I have seen the lean grown weak

See the children of the earth, who wake to find the table bare
See the gentry in the country, riding off to take the air

Reaching for his saddlebag, he takes a rusty sword into his hand
Then striking up a knightly pose, he shouts across the ocean to the shore
Til he can shout no more."

It is a beautiful song that I have somehow been unable to overplay despite a ridiculous amount of listens.

Remember - this is only the album's first song. There are 10 more, and while not all as strong, many are close.

I am particularly fond of "Christian Island", a song about Gord on his boat, telling the story of sailing during the summer, and then tying back up in the lee of Christian Island at the end of the season. It is a song that says summertime, and reminds us to enjoy the little things.

"Tall and strong she slips along
I sing for her a song
And she leans into the wind
She's a good old boat and she'll stay afloat
Through the toughest gales and keep smilin'
When the summer ends we will rest again
In the lee of Christian Island"

At this point, we are only two songs in.

The album shows great emotional range - the activism of "Don Quixote" and "The Patriots' Dream" are balanced by relatively gentle travel songs like "Christian Island" and "On Susan's Floor". I like Gord in his mournful and dark side as well.

For this, I really enjoy "Second Cup of Coffee", where Gord sings about hard memories, and the hard liquor he uses to soften them:

"I'm on my second cup of coffee and I still can't face the day
I'm thinking of the lady who got lost along the way
And if I don't stop this trembling hand from reaching for the phone
I'll be reaching for the bottle Lord, before this day is done"

"Ode to Big Blue" tells the story of a blue whale, a century old, that has escaped the whalers harpoons all those years. Lightfoot paints a picture with equal majesty and dignity that he gives the old knight in "Don Quixote", but expands his message from how we treat each other, to how we treat the world.

In closing, this album has some of the most memorable folk music I own, by one of my all time favourite artists. If you are only going to own one Gordon Lightfoot album you could play it safe and get Gord's Gold, but that is so obvious. Get this instead, and be just as happy.

Best tracks: Don Quixote, Christian Island, Alberta Bound, Ode to Big Blue, Second Cup of Coffee, On Susan's Floor (the other four are pretty good as well)

CD Odyssey Disc 107: Gordon Lightfoot

Wow - another album, another bout of the Production Blues. This time I was seriously irked, as it was at the expense of one of my all-time music heroes.

Disc 107 is...Gord's Gold Volume II

Artist: Gordon Lightfoot

Year of Release: 1988

How I Came To Know It: I've known Gordon Lightfoot all my life, having grown up with the original "Gord's Gold" which was a staple in my Mom's collection. I bought this album back in the late eighties/early nineties when I was looking for "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and couldn't find the studio album that had it. Incidentally, that album is "Summertime Dream" which I now have - but that's not our subject today.

How It Stacks Up: This is a "best of" and they don't stack up. However I have three different Gordon Lightfoot "best ofs" and this is the worst of the three. I also have five studio albums which I am really looking forward to reviewing (and this weekend it is my intent to add to this collection).

Rating: I don't rate best ofs, dammit. That is the way of it, here at "A Creative Maelstrom" and that is the way it is gonna stay!

This album is by one of the three greats of Canadian singer/songwriters, Gordon Lightfoot. The other two are Leonard Cohen and Neil Young. Recently Cohen's song "Hallelujah" stole the show at the Olympic opening, and Neil Young was by far the best part of the closing ceremonies. Lightfoot was third man out, unfortunately.

Like Cohen and Young, Lightfoot isn't getting any younger, and in fact there was a recent hoax where for about 4 hours I thought he had died. Later it was revealed to be one of his friends engaging in a prank that got out of hand (nice to see Gord is still pushing the envelope). I was seriously depressed thinking he was gone, and I realized how sad I am going to be the day the headline is true for any of those guys. I am fearful it won't be long we'll start to lose them, and we won't see their like again.

Anyway, before I get all maudlin, back to the album.

Although not well known, Gord doesn't just do best of records. He will often re-record all the songs when he puts it together - no original recordings. He did this with "Gord's Gold" as well. In some cases the songs sound quite a bit different from the original as a result.

This can be a good thing - "Gord's Gold" is a quality "best of" album. Frankly, it is one of the best compilations in my collection, and not least of which because the songs sound fresh.

Unfortunately, Volume II's production is about as nice as the sweater Gord is wearing on the album cover. Recorded in 1988, it is solidly in Lightfoot's mumbly-contemporary phase.

Not that I always object to this phase - in fact I even have a soft spot for 1986's "East of Midnight" which is definitely a departure many fans didn't appreciate.

Unfortunately, most of the tracks on "Gord's Gold Vol. II" are done with an earlier production in mind. Consequently the songs just don't suit themselves to "Ambient Guitar Mumble-Sing" (This style is surprisingly tolerable on "East of Midnight.").

So, while I admire Lightfoot's efforts to re-imagine his older songs when he compiles them, in this case he only accomplishes making them sound bad. That isn't to say this album is bad - the songs themselves are strong enough to survive any production. Lightfoot does his level best to ruin them, but only partially succeeds.

In fact, even the bad re-imagining of "Wreck of the Edmund Fitgerald" had me choking up when I heard these lines:

"Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd've made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'em."

Tough stuff - and this song should be required listening to anyone who calls themselves a Canadian. Just listen to it on "Summertime Dream" where it sounds like it is supposed to.

Of course, Gord would say when he played it the first way, that's how he wanted it, and when he played it the second way, that's how he wanted it as well. Fair enough, Gord - it's your song, I'm not going to argue over it. Besides, even at age 72 I am fairly certain you could still kick my ass if I pressed the issue.

For now, I'll keep this album - of the eighteen tracks I only have seven on other albums. However, once I reach at least ten, I'm going to let her go and free up space on the CD rack.

Best tracks: There are lots of good tracks on this record - and I heartily recommend you find them in their originally recorded versions.