Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?

Subject: BS: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 01:19 AM

He made plenty of them. Which is your choice for the best one? And why?

I think I've got 'em all, but I can't decide.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 02:13 AM

I guess I'm a greatest hits kinda guy. I'd be satisfied with Gord's Gold, if only it had "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" on it. For "Wreck" you had to buy the second "Gord's Gold" album, and it had only the one good song on it (and I don't think it was the original recording).
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Musicjim
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 03:37 AM

Hi there!
Well, Gord Lightfoot has to be one of my very favorites, and it would be hard to just choose one favorite.
Perhaps the Songbook box set would qualify. It has things from his very early days and I can't think of any of my favorite songs that aren't on that box set.
I would say his earlier work is better than his later stuff, but oh well.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Songsmith
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 04:03 AM

Hello Folks,

Check out JP Cormier's recent tribute release. I just got it and it is really something else. Also endorsed by Mr. Lightfoot himself I may add. JP did it all including the total instrumentation. He treated the tunes with the class they deserved. A must for any Lightfoot fan.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Jim Tailor
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 08:15 AM

Sit Down Young Stranger

...too bad it went out of print so fast. Now it's IMPOSSIBLE to get a copy of it. *grin*

The "Lightfoot" album I listen to the most is Tony Rice Does Lightfoot ... but to answer the question completely straight, the "Lightfoot does Lightfoot" Cd I listen to most is an early recordings compilation titled Did She Mention My Name?.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: number 6
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 08:30 AM

His latest cd ..... Harmony

sIx

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 10:30 AM

I unfortunately am not too well-versed in the albums of Lightfoot music, but I would say that any album claiming to be the "best of" would have to contain the "Canadian Railroad Trilogy"and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" These are destined to go down in the annals of Canadian Folk Music as classics.

Jack Hickman

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Alonzo M. Zilch (inactive)
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 11:03 AM

Sit Down Young Stranger

...too bad it went out of print so fast. Now it's IMPOSSIBLE to get a copy of it. *grin*

Sit Down Young Stranger did not go out of print. When one of the songs became a big hit single, it was retitled If You Could Read My Mind after said song.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Jim Tailor
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 11:22 AM

Hey Alonzo,

That's why I put the *grin* at the end of the statement. Maybe I should put more "obvious" in my humor.

...Or maybe I should just put more "funny" in there.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 01:36 PM

the one with Sit Down Young Stranger is the best overall, I think, although it doesn't include many of my very favorite songs, none of them appeared on a record as consistently good as SDYS. IMO.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 01:43 PM

Lightfoot!
The Way I Feel
Back Here on Earth
Did She Mention My Name
Sit Down Young Stranger
Summer Side of Life.
Old Dan's Records
Don Quixote
Sundown

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 01:44 PM

Oh, and Sunday Concert, too

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 01:53 PM

Very good, Cluin.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: pdq
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 02:17 PM

I quit listening to Lightfoot at "Endless Wire" but "Cold on the Shoulder" and "Summertime Dream" deserve an 'honorable mention'.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST,JB
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 05:22 PM

I recall reading an interview with GL many many years ago where he himself said that musically he considered "Summer side of life" to be his be record. This album is also available on CD in the meantime.
However he has made quite a few recordings since then. My personal Lightfoot favourites are "Lightfoot", "Sit down young stranger" and "Don Quixote".

JB

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST,JB
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 05:25 PM

Sorry for typo in first post! That should have read "best record"

I recall reading an interview with GL many many years ago where he himself said that musically he considered "Summer side of life" to be his best record. This album is also available on CD in the meantime.
However he has made quite a few recordings since then. My personal Lightfoot favourites are "Lightfoot", "Sit down young stranger" and "Don Quixote".

JB

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 05:40 PM

Yes, they're all very good. It's strange with Lightfoot...how his albums seem to blend together in a kind of formless way. They don't stand out in epochs apart from one another, the way those of Dylan or the Beatles or Joni Mitchell do. Perhaps that is just the way I see it because I have not concentrated as closely on Lightfoot though. I think he's a very fine songwriter. One of the best.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 11:41 PM

As I said, I like the earlier albums best, the ones I grew up on. I too pretty much bailed on his albums after Endless Wire. Compared to the earlier albums, his later ones were pretty weak. But then I guess I hold Lightfoot to a much higher standard.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: number 6
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 11:44 PM

Good Point Little Hawk ..... "how his albums seem to blend together in a kind of formless way" that is so true .... even up to his current cd. It is difficult to actually pick out a 'favourite'.

sIx

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST,slickerbill
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 05:00 PM

"Don Quixote" and "Sit Down ...". The first "Gord's gold" is a pretty great collection, complete with what I think was one of his materpieces, "The Canadian Railway Trilogy" sb

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Once Famous
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 05:15 PM

Don quixote in vinvyl

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: gnu
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 05:46 PM

I've got 'em all, but I can't decide. Who could ?

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Terry Allan Hall
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 07:03 PM

Dunno...love 'em all!

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: khandu
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 09:30 PM

Don Quixote is up there, but it is hard to say it is my favorite. Joe Offer was right about the 2nd "Gord's Gold" having a version of "Wreck..." different from the one we are familiar with.

Don Quixote is a great album...

The man has so many great songs, it is hard to pick a "best" album, because every album has at least one great song on it.

Don Quixote had several great songs on it...

But so does so many others! "Sit Down...", "Old Dan's Records", etc...

I hated the song "Sundown", it was balanced with "Carefree Highway". Great lyrics & guitar work!

"Alberta Bound", "Christian Island", "Second Cup of Coffee"; all great songs on "Don Quixote".

Yeah, I gotta say..."Don Quixote"!

ken

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST,balladeer
Date: 03 Feb 05 - 12:04 AM

No contest. Summertime Dream. Every arrangement a jewel.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Feb 05 - 02:46 AM

I picked up a copy of that Tony Rice Does Lightfoot CD at a bluegrass festival last summer. It's very good, but it makes me wonder why TR didn't cover Lightfoot's "Redwood Hill", which was so obviously written and recorded in a bluegrass style.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Ron Davies
Date: 03 Feb 05 - 07:40 AM

I'm definitely with the folks who say the early albums are the best.

Vinyl -for me it has to be Lightfoot!--which I used to think was the very first. Look what's on it--Early Morning Rain, Long River, The Way I Feel, Rich Man's Spiritual, 16 Miles, Ribbon of Darkness, For Lovin' Me, Steel Rail Blues, Pride of Man--every one a classic and all by Lightfoot except the last.

Just wonderful, no soupy strings, lean clean arrangements, good stories, good imagery--mostly just 2 acoustic guitars, with a string bass.

Now, unquestionably I'd say the same about the re-issue as top album--because on CD it also now has Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Softly, and Song for a Winter's Night--appears to be a double album.

Interestingly I've read that Gordon himself now denigrates the vinyl Lightfoot---too country?

Even the CD, of course, is missing some classics--they could have taken some of the other out and put in 10 Degrees and Getting Colder--a true under-rated classic

Now he's traded off his Martin
But his troubles are not over
His feet are almost frozen
And the sun is sinking low
Won't you listen to me, brother
If you ever loved your mother
Please pull off on the shoulder
If you're going Milwaukee way
It's 10 degrees and getting colder
Down by Boulder Dam today

Also Back Here On Earth and Did She Mention My Name?, and Christian Island (in addition to the big pop hits Sundown, Edmund Fitzgerald, If You Could Read My MInd (soupy strings and all). Those I like but could live without if necessary--they come on oldies stations from time to time.

Now it looks like I can cherry-pick (already have the CD)--many of the other songs are among the 260 available (with some repeats) on I-Tunes.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Jim Tailor
Date: 03 Feb 05 - 07:56 AM

I read a long article on Lightfoot -- published in Dirty Linen Magazine. In it the author says that the critics (love them) complained that songwriting appeared too easy for Lightfoot.

Whatcha gonna do with folks like that? -James Taylor -

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Peter T.
Date: 03 Feb 05 - 11:56 AM

"Canadian Railroad Trilogy" is the greatest Canadian song ever (this is no mean feat in a nation that produced Joni Mitchell).

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Amos
Date: 03 Feb 05 - 12:14 PM

Peter!!!!


We AGREE!!!!!!!!!




A

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: gnu
Date: 03 Feb 05 - 12:35 PM

Shite !!! Am I dreaming or what ? I had two Gordon Lightfoot anthologies, I think. Yeah, I and II. Both white with blue writing on the covers. I have turned this house upside-downy and to no avail. The last time I remember seeing them is very late one night in the kitchen at the old house... about four years ago. Someone tell me I am not dreaming... both white with blue writing on the covers... Anthology I and II... sheet music for nearly every song he ever wrote before 1990 or so, I think. Anyone familiar with these texts ?

Chris... if you read this, check your studio... all my books have the "66" on page 66 blotted out with red ink circles over the sixes. And e us once in a while so's we know your still alive.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: gnu
Date: 03 Feb 05 - 01:57 PM

NO 'Cats have seen these ?

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: burntstump
Date: 04 Feb 05 - 04:50 AM

Cold on the shoulder is a very under estimated album and so is Old Dans Records, each has some very well written songs.Old Dans Records took me a little time to get into but now I rate it as one of his best.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Feb 05 - 09:36 PM

Yep, gnu. I have both those songbooks myself, very worn, dog-eared, taped up, pages falling out. Lots of miles on `em. Been with me since my early teen years, to university and back, through several moves. I cut my teeth learning those songs, though the first one I had was the songbook to the "Did She Mention My Name" album. I remember playing "Wherefor and Why" and "Mountains and Maryann" maybe a thousand times while honing my chops. I loved that D - Dmaj7 - D7 chord progression in "Poor Little Alison" and "Approaching Lavender" too. And yodelled my heart out on "Steel Rail Blues", which I could do before my voice dropped.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Feb 05 - 09:48 PM

By the way, they didn't contain all my favourite Lightfoot songs. It was several years later that I worked out a satisfactory version of Marie Christine on my own, one that I could get into, though it involved using an open tuning.

And also, from the GL Anthology volume 1, the music to "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" was a big disappointment. First of all, it was written out in the key of F to make it stupidly difficult to play and sing at the same time for me then. It was a simple matter to transpose to D (I'm sure Gord played it that way, capoed, anyway). And the whole bridge part of the 2nd movement was left out (Look away, say they, across this mighty land...). So I had to figure that part out myself too. It was a good exercise for me anyway. I had a pretty good version worked up at one time; I don't know why I quit playing it. It was a good campfire favourite.... maybe `cause I quit playing campfires...

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Feb 05 - 10:47 PM

I like some of the later albums a lot too, such as "Salute" and "East of Midnight". I agree with all the others people have mentioned. Every one of them is great.

Cluin, I think I have one of the Lightfoot Anthologies you mentioned, but it's got a brown cover. The sheet music in songbooks is often printed out in the wrong key (from a guitar point of view).

You can surely find used copies of those songbooks at some place like Amazon.com or Ebay. Try it and see.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: gnu
Date: 05 Feb 05 - 12:25 PM

Thanks.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST,Friend of Gord's music
Date: 05 Feb 05 - 03:03 PM

An even better place to find used songbooks would be ABE Books on the Internet. They are the ultimate for used books, and they're totally reliable to deal with.

ABE Books

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST,Katie (San Diego, but a Wisconsin girl origi
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 08:24 PM

Lightfoot is part "sea shanty", part country, part folk, very masculine and outdoorsy. He is at his best with picking songs in which the notes stand alone and there is a richness to the band behind him, with bass and rhythm and lots of guitars. I don't feel that he found his style until the 1970s. I think his voice was at its best as an instrument at that time too. Until then, he was playing '60s folk that everyone else was playing with arrangements that didn't suit him and that tried to sound like pop songs of the time. In the '60s, he sang in too high a key and now his voice has changed dramatically on the higher side.

I love that there is a very sly sense of humor and sexuality in songs like "Sundown", "Slide on Over" and "The Watchman's Gone".   The 12-string guitar songs just impress me with the overall musicianship. The ballads with string arrangements are the most beautiful. Canadian Railroad Trilogy is fantastic story-telling on an epic level. It has a gorgeous arrangement musically also.

My favorites albums are in this order (I own every album and every box set):

1. Sundown
2. Cold on the Shoulder
3. Summer Side of Life
4. Don Quixote
5. Summertime Dream
6. Old Dan's Records

"Gord's Gold" is what my Mom had originally during the '70s when I was a kid. It was what got me hooked in the first place and I wore out the cassette tape making her play it in the car all of the time in Southern California. I will listen to it forever. Now I love to play these CDs in the winter and think about the snow, staying in a cabin and being in the Midwest.

There is no bigger fan of Gordon Lightfoot's work on the planet!

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Beer
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 09:51 PM

An impossiable question to answer. There are just to many good ones.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 01:41 AM

Peter, I have to agree with you about Canadian Railroad Trilogy. A masterpiece.

I have to admit, I haven't listened to Gordon in a long time. This thread sure is bringing back memories. He wrote an awful lot of great songs.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: burntstump
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 06:46 AM

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 12:01 PM

Great stuff, Katie! You clearly know Gordon Lightfoot's material to a "T". I'm like that with Dylan, but I've got just about all the Lightfoot recordings too.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 12:58 AM

CBC has a lot of archived stuff on Lightfoot appearances (as well as other people).

a video of a young Gordie singing Canadian Railroad Trilogy on New Year's Day of 1967. A pretty cheesy production thrown in with a men's choir and what looks like some choreography from "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", but it also shows a quick appearance by Red Shea, just before the scene with the topless prostitute.

There's a link on that page also back to more CBC clips of Gord through the years. You can watch a mumbling, clueless-looking Bob Dylan present Lightfoot with an award or listen to GL talk about "Black Day in July" being banned from US airplay. And also, VERY early footage of GL square-dancing and singing on CBC's "Country Hoedown" show, c. 1962

Oh, and in case I never mentioned it before, Lightfoot RULZ!


The fiddle player in one of the groups I play with has been around a bit, pro musically speaking, including a lot of work with the CBC way back when. He remembers doing some playing on the Country Hoedown back when GL was on it. He was telling me Lightfoot was playing one of his songs while they had the cloggers kicking the stage around him and it just did NOT go together at all. Talking to Lightfoot, he found out that the young man was about to leave the show to try and pursue a career as a singer/songwriter. Fred (the fiddler) says he remembers thinking this guy is crazy to leave a regular job with the CBC.

(Fred has a lot more stories about a lot of other people... we're trying to get him to write his memoirs)

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 08:58 PM

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST,pedro
Date: 10 Aug 17 - 10:49 AM

Live. Massey hall

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: gillymor
Date: 10 Aug 17 - 11:26 AM

I used play the snot out of Early Gordon Lightfoot (I think it was called) on United Artists which was a compilation that they seem to have expanded into a double album. Also, there was If You Could Read my Mind which I believe was originally released as Sit Down Young Stranger until the title song became a big hit. Though you still hear it all the time I love the song If You Could... and especially the sinewy guitar of Red Shea.
Besides the great songwriting and singing, hearing Red's 6 string bouncing off Gordon's 12 string on some tunes, For Loving Me comes to mind, was also a highlight. Later albums had a lot of good tunes but those 2 did it for me.

Not Lightfoot but Tony Rice compiled a lot of his Lightfoot covers into
an excellent CD called something like Tony Rice Plays and Sings Gordon Lightfoot.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST,Jerome Clark
Date: 10 Aug 17 - 08:03 PM

Though there are a number of fine Lightfoot albums, none is better overall than Back Here on Earth (United Artists, 1968). I'd be hard-pressed to name my favorite Lightfoot song, but "Long Way Back Home," which is on it, would be close to the top. Sunday Concert (UA, 1969) is also brilliant. It features "Leaves of Grass," arguably the finest folk-protest song of the Vietnam-war era.

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: pdq
Date: 11 Aug 17 - 10:53 AM

Somewhere on Gordon Lightfoot's UA albums from the '60s are guitar players David Rae, Bruce Langhorne, Hugh McCracken and Red Shea. Shea started on the second record. I think you will find that David Rae did the guitar on the song "For Loving Me".

Subject: RE: Best Gordon Lightfoot Album?
From: GUEST,Jerome Clark
Date: 11 Aug 17 - 11:24 PM

That's David Rea, not "Rae." He died in 2011. Both Joni Mitchell and Ian Tyson have praised him in song.

I saw him in concert at a Chicago folk club ca 1970-1971. My friend then and still, Minneapolis guitarist Dakota Dave Hull, was there with me, and we were impressed with his version of "Oh Death." We talked with him afterwards, and he seemed startled that we knew of Dock Boggs, from whom nearly all North American versions (including Ralph Stanley's) of this very old song flow.

He was a remarkable musician who deserves to be better remembered than he is.