Unfortunately Indistinct Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind Is Not Gordon Lightfoot’s Best!

The Good: Great voice! Some good lyrics
The Bad: SHORT, Dull instrumental accompaniment
The Basics: If You Could Read My Mind is both Lightfoot’s best-selling original album (under its original name Sit Down Young Stranger) and one of his most boring works!


So far in my study of Gordon Lightfoot’s musical works, I have discovered that I like Gordon Lightfoot’s music and that I find I am enjoying his works in almost the opposite of most of his fans! As a result, some of his celebrated albums with awesome charting singles have left me unimpressed and some of his albums that flopped because they didn’t have a “hook” single have been the ones I enjoy listening to the whole album over and over and over again (I listen to every album I review at least eight times before reviewing it!). So, it is something of a contrarian opinion that I have on If You Could Read My Mind (the album is identical in content to its original name Sit Down Young Stranger).

If You Could Read My Mind is Gordon Lightfoot’s sixth studio album (his first on Reprise) and while it might be his best-selling non-compilation album, its success might be based more on the advertising hype than the quality of the work. If You Could Read My Mind easily falls into the “indistinct” category, where a generally good work has so many songs that sound so similar to one another that listening to the album on replay it becomes something of an auditory mash. Any one of the songs on If You Could Read My Mind are (at the very least) good, but as an album, this album is dragged down because all of the songs have the “one man with a guitar” sound to them (despite there being additional instruments on several tracks.

With only eleven songs clocking out at 36:44, the biggest strike against If You Could Read My Mind is that it is short. The album is mostly the work of Gordon Lightfoot. Lightfoot wrote all of the songs, save “Me And Bobby McGee” (which, as it turns out was co-written by Kris Kristofferson and was only covered by Janis Joplin?!). Gordon Lightfoot plays guitar or piano on each song (depending on which instrument is dominant on the track) and he sang all of the lead vocals. The only major creative function Lightfoot was not involved in was producing or engineering the album. Given that he was well-established by the time If You Could Read My Mind was released, it is hard to imagine that this was not the creative direction Lightfoot wanted for the album.

Vocally, If You Could Read My Mind is brought down by the quality vocals of Gordon Lightfoot. That might seem like a contradiction, but there is a narcoleptic quality to listening to If You Could Read My Mind because almost all of the songs, save “Baby It’s Allright” have Lightfoot singing slowly, smoothly and hypnotically. His vocals throughout the album are clear, but generally slow and somewhat sad.

Instrumentally, If You Could Read My Mind is very much the sound of one man and a guitar. It is hard to imagine that an acoustic version with Lightfoot unsupported by backing harmonica, bass, or mandolin would sound too different from the full-studio version of the album. The clarity of the songs makes it almost inconceivable that Lightfoot didn’t sue the crap out of Bob Dylan! Dylan’s “Shelter From The Storm,” which was released five years after If You Could Read My Mind has virtually the same tune as Lightfoot’s “Sit Down Young Stranger!”

Lyrically, If You Could Read My Mind is a good, but not superlative, album. This is very much an album of Folk ballads and the raw emotionalism of many of the songs is appealing, but Lightfoot has done similar sentiments better elsewhere. That’s not to say that lines like “Open the door my pretty one / Wake from your sleep and take me home / Open your eyes and look my way / I cannot leave your love alone” (“Your Love’s Return”) do not perfectly capture the passion and yearning that make it relatable, but hearing it with such an indistinct tune makes it harder to be grabbed by the lines.

It is easy to see why Lightfoot originally named the album Sit Down Young Stranger; “Sit Down Young Stranger” is a beautiful folk song that is very much an archetype for the Folk-Country tradition. The conversational tone of the song is revealed through the lines “I'm standin' in the doorway / My head bowed in my hands / Not knowin' where to sit / Not knowin' where to stand / My father looms above me / For him there is no rest / My mother's arms enfold me / And hold me to her breast / They say you been out wandrin' / They say you travelled far / Sit down young stranger / And tell us who you are” (“Sit Down Young Stranger”) and it is well-executed.

Some of Lightfoot’s poetics on If You Could Read My Mind are a bit more esoteric, though. After listening to the album more than ten times now, I don’t think I could quote a single line from “Saturday Clothes.” And I have no idea what it means to be “Approaching Lavender” (is “lavender” a euphemism for a drug?! A love interest? A hooker?). Lightfoot repeats the title a number of times and the song has good poetics – “If you'd like to try your hand at understanding lavender / Then you must be very sure / That life is not a game / You might even learn a thing or two approaching lavender / You'll soon be on a one night tour / Forgetting your own name” (“Approaching Lavender”) - but it seems to work better as a poem than a song.

Played on repeat, “The Pony Man” easily blends back into “Minstrel Of The Dawn” and that creates a pretty much continual loop that is not bad – it is in the lower portion of average in my rating system – but it is, most certainly, underwhelming.

The best songs are “Sit Down Young Stranger” and “If You Could Read My Mind;” the rest of the album pretty much just blends together.

For other Gordon Lightfoot albums, please check out my reviews of:
Lightfoot!
Sundown
Endless Wire

3.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Not A Masterwork Album, Sundown Still Has Some Of Lightfoot’s Best Works!

The Good: Good voice, Good sound, Some wonderful lyrics
The Bad: SHORT, Not a great amount of musical variety, Works better as a collection of singles than an album.
The Basics: Sundown might be the album that has the best, most recognizable Gordon Lightfoot singles, but it might not be his best album ever.


In my study of any given musical artist, I find that I run into weird conundrums with a fair amount of regularity. In the case of Gordon Lightfoot, the single “Sundown” got me into listening to Lightfoot and now that I’ve picked up the album Sundown, I figured I should be happy as a clam. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that the album with the most recognizable singles by an artist is that artist’s best album. However, having just listened to Endless Wire (reviewed here!) on heavy repeat, Sundown does not hold together nearly as well as an album. Sundown certainly has more iconic singles and some of the poetry is more clear and great, but the album has a much less experimental nature and thus comes across as somewhat musically bland.

Sundown is best known for the singles “Sundown” and “Carefree Highway” (a song whose lyrics I never heard right until I had Sundown on heavy replay). Beyond that, none of the songs have the same level of hook to them. That’s not to say that Sundown is a bad album, but it is definitely driven up based on the strength of the two commercial singles.

With only ten songs, clocking out at 36:12, Sundown is short, like most LP records-converted-to-c.d. Sundown was Gordon Lightfoot’s tenth studio album, so it came at a time in his career when Lightfoot had almost complete creative control. As a result, Lightfoot wrote and composed all of the songs on the album. Gordon Lightfoot provided both lead and backing vocals, as well as most of the guitar tracks. The only major function Gordon Lightfoot does not perform on Sundown is producing the album. Still, it seems like Sundown is very much the album Lightfoot intended to create.

Vocally, Gordon Lightfoot sings smoothly and melodically on Sundown. While he goes lower on “Sundown,” he is within his more familiar – higher – range on most of the tracks. What is notable about the vocals on Sundown is that Lightfoot does not enunciate on all the tracks as well. “Carefree Highway” is a song with frequently misheard lines.

Instrumentally, Sundown is an interesting transition album between classic folk (which has a “one man and a guitar” sound much of the time) and classic rock. Lightfoot is accompanied on most of the songs by bass guitar, drums, and piano. The result is a richer sound than most folk albums. Sundown has songs that have distinctive tunes to them, something frequently lacking from today’s music. Lightfoot knows how to create a melody, harmony and musical themes over the course of almost all of the ten songs.

As one might expect from Gordon Lightfoot, Lightfoot has something to say on Sundown. Lightfoot sings musical storysongs on almost all of the tracks and they are impressive. The sense of foreboding on the title track is poetically-realized with the wonderful lines “I can see her lying back in her satin dress / In a room where you do what you don't confess / Sundown, you better take care / If I find you been creeping 'round my back stairs . . . She's been looking like a queen in a sailor's dream / And she don't always say what she really means / Sometimes I think it's a shame / When I get feeling better when I'm feeling no pain” (“Sundown”) set to one of the most distinctive bass tracks of all time!

“Too Late For Prayin’” stands out on Sundown. The song, which has the darker lyrics “Nothin' left but promises / Nothin' much is certain / All we see is want and need across the board, why thank you lord / We're livin' in the glory of your care / Skies of blue have all turned brown / To the sound of cryin / Lord abide, let us stem the tide / Of broken dreams / Sometimes you seem to tell us / It's too late for prayin'” (“Too Late For Prayin’”) has an uncharacteristic honesty to it. Lightfoot has a strong sense of realism and the moodiness of the song illustrates Lightfoot’s power as a songwriter.

That said, “High And Dry” is a little repetitive. Lightfoot sings “Singin' why, me oh my, is there a better man than I? / I hope you find your way back home, / before you're lyin, high and dry, / I hope you find your way back home before you die” (“High And Dry”) over and over for such a short song. “High And Dry” is an exception to the rule.

Sundown is a good album, but its strong singles definitely make the album better. Amid such distinctive songs as the singles found on virtually every compilation for Gordon Lightfoot, Sundown has an equal number of unmemorable tracks. The result should be a very average album, but “Sundown” is just that good of a song; it brings up the whole album.

The best song on the album is “Sundown,” the low point is the unmemorable “Circle Of Steel.”

For other, prior, Artist Of The Month reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Are Men - Barenaked Ladies
Hotter Than July - Stevie Wonder
18 Singles - U2

6.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Mellow, Memorable, And Meaningful: Endless Wire Is Full Of Hooks!

The Good: Good voice, Good musical variety, Some wonderful lyrics
The Bad: SHORT!
The Basics: Despite a dated sound on some of the more rock-oriented tracks, Endless Wire holds up remarkably well as an experimental Gordon Lightfoot album!


When I sit down and choose an Artist Of The Month, I try to divorce my experience from any hype that might surround the artists. When I chose Gordon Lightfoot as my February 2015 Artist Of The Month and reviewed Lightfoot! (that review is here!), I knew virtually nothing about the artist and I liked that; it makes for a very pure review. As I sat down to review Endless Wire, though, I accidentally read some information about the album. Apparently, Endless Wire marked a turning point in the marketability of Gordon Lightfoot albums and it’s all downhill from here for his career – at least as far as selling albums goes.

I’m not actually sure why that happened to Lightfoot; Endless Wire is a surprisingly hip album and while it was released in 1978, some of the tracks – most notably – rock like late ‘80s rock and roll. It’s possible that Gordon Lightfoot was ahead of his time. I suppose it is equally probable that the musical experimentation that Endless Wire possessed mortgaged the audience that made Lightfoot big (it is much more produced and instrumentally filled out than his early works). Regardless, despite the very short duration of the album, Endless Wire holds up decently even now!

With only ten songs, clocking out at 34:37, Endless Wire is entirely the work of singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. Lightfoot provided all of the lead vocals on the songs and he plays guitar (six, twelve, or high-string or electric, depending upon the track!) all of the songs. Rather predictably, by this point in Lightfoot’s career (this was his thirteenth studio album), Gordon Lightfoot wrote and composed all ten songs. He also co-produced Endless Wire. This is very much his artistic vision as it stood in 1977 when it was recorded and 1978, when the album was released.

Endless Wire has a very evolved sound for Gordon Lightfoot. Far from the initial sound of “one man and a guitar,” Endless Wire is musically rich. “Songs The Minstrel Sang” actually sounds like a post-“Achy Breaky Heart” Country/Pop song, dominated as it is by the electric guitar and a recognizable volume of percussion in the song. “Daylight Katy” is pure pop, as is “Sometimes I Don’t Mind;” “If Children Had Wings” is a lullaby and “Sweet Guinevere” is a classic ballad. No two songs sound quite the same on Endless Wire and the musical variety opens Lightfoot up to a more orchestral song. Instead of “One Man And A Guitar,” songs like “Sometimes I Don’t Mind” have a full orchestra sound, as Lightfoot is backed by sax and a pretty pounding piano part. Obviously, commenting from hindsight is weird, but I’m not sure (by the sound) why Gordon Lightfoot wasn’t competing with Hall & Oats with his track “The Circle Is Small.”

Vocally, Gordon Lightfoot is pretty direct, mellow, and fairly familiar. Except on “Endless Wire,” where Lightfoot sounds like John Mellencamp, the songs on Endless Wire all have Gordon Lightfoot singing with his straightforward vocals. By this point in his career, he was able (or willing) to go a little lower than he usually did, but for the most part, he stays in a comfortable, mid-to-higher-register for his vocals. What struck me, leaping as I did from his first album to this one, was how few times he really holds notes on Endless Wire.

What makes Endless Wire so worthwhile even now are the lyrics of Gordon Lightfoot. Lightfoot manages to bring his sense of Folk music storytelling even to dramatically different musical styles on Endless Wire. Retelling and reimagining the story of Robin Hood, Lightfoot sings “His aim was mean and his shot was clean / And his suit was the shade of evergreen / The folks he knew hadn't naught to fear / When the sheriff was there they were over here / Hi derry doon in the month of June / Was the song the minstrel sung / To the good of Robin Hood's / Good name and a place to run” (“Songs The Minstrel Sang”) and it is pretty wonderful!

If anything plagues the lyrics on Endless Wire, it is a sense of repetition. On the opening track, “Daylight Katy,” Lightfoot repeats “come on” a hypnotic number of times. Similarly, on “Hangdog Hotel Room,” the listener gets repeated rhymes like “Oh Lord it feels so good to play a nighttime tune / So pass the jar and that old guitar in this hangdog hotel room.” It’s not bad; it just causes the album to hold up a little less-well on high repeat!

Like many of Gordon Lightfoot’s tracks, Endless Wire includes songs that make complex and compelling emotions simple and musical. With the lines “If there's a chance for someone else / To make you feel life is worth livin' / Give it a try oh lady / Just let me know and I'll move on / Home is where the heart is / But at times a good home must be broken / The wine has grown bitter / From the harsh words we have spoken” (“If There’s A Reason”), Lightfoot captures perfectly the emotional sense of surrender that virtually anyone who has been divorced or witnessed a bad marriage between their parents can understand perfectly! Lightfoot is a wonderful writer.

And what there is of Endless Wire is suitably impressive. It is a rare album that just leaves the listener wanting more and for such a prolific artist as Gordon Lightfoot, it is unfortunate that there is not more for us!

The best track is hard to pick – this is an album where almost all of the songs are wonderful, each for a different reason. If I had to pick one that was essential from the album, I’d go with “Sometimes I Don’t Mind;” the weak link is the unmemorable “Dreamland.”

For other, prior, Artist Of The Month reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Tunnel Of Love - Bruce Springsteen
Covers - James Taylor
Any Day Now - Joan Baez

6.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Inauspicious Start: Lightfoot! Introduces Me To Gordon Lightfoot (My February 2015 Artist Of The Month)!

The Good: Good voice, Wonderful lyrics
The Bad: Utterly unmemorable instrumental accompaniment, SHORT!
The Basics: Lightfoot! was the first major release for Canadian Folk singer Gordon Lightfoot and it’s not a bad debut, though it is a bit short and unmemorable.


Ironically, for the year’s shortest month, I have chosen an Artist Of The Month with one of the longest careers of any I have taken on in my musical studies. I chose Gordon Lightfoot because my musical education is much weaker in classic Folk music than I would like and, living in Michigan for the past two and a half years, I am inundated with Country music, so I figure opening up to more classic Folk is at least likely to make me closer to conversational about music with people around me. Around the turn of the Millennium, there was a rap artist who worked Gordon Lightfoot’s song “Sundown” into his rap and it’s hard to deny that Gordon Lightfoot is cool. And with the death of Pete Seeger last year, Gordon Lightfoot is now the oldest Folk singer-songwriter still performing (he has two years on Joan Baez).

What surprised me was that Gordon Lightfoot had over a decade of recordings before “Sundown.” Given that I could only name two Lightfoot songs before I started studying him as my Artist Of The Month, I figured he was a good subject for my month’s music. Lightfoot! is not, technically, his debut album. Instead, Lightfoot! is the first major studio recording by Gordon Lightfoot, released by United Artists in 1966 (though it was recorded over a year prior).

With fourteen songs, clocking out at 39:01, perhaps the biggest strike against Lightfoot! is that it is short. For a debut album, it is impressive that eleven of the songs were written and composed by Lightfoot himself. The other three are cover songs that he did not write or co-write. Lightfoot provides all of the lead vocals on Lightfoot! and he provides the lead guitars and occasional piano. Lightfoot is not credited as a producer on Lightfoot!, which makes sense given that it is his first major studio release.

The only other real strike against Lightfoot! is Gordon Lightfoot’s instrumental accompaniment. Lightfoot! is an exceptionally simple album, musically. Lightfoot is pretty much the master of the “one man and a guitar” sound on Lightfoot! (he is, at most accompanied by another guitar and a bass on any of the tracks). Perhaps the reason a neophyte to Gordon Lightfoot’s works would be underwhelmed by Lightfoot! is that none of the songs have a strong melody (though “For Lovin’ Me” sounds so perfectly like what one expects from a folk song!). After listening to Lightfoot! eight times now, if someone were to play a Muzak version of any of the songs on the album (without lyrics), I would never be able to identify them as either from this album or a distinctive Gordon Lightfoot song. The album does not sound bad, but the emphasis is so strongly on the vocals and the lyrics that the instrumental accompaniment is so simple and underdeveloped that it becomes indistinct.

Vocally, Gordon Lightfoot illustrates decent lung capacity on Lightfoot!. On songs like “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” Lightfoot sings with passion and really holds his notes for a decent stretch. The impressive aspect of Lightfoot’s vocals on such songs is how many of the notes in a row he holds; in creating a contemplative, somewhat sad, mood, Lightfoot stretches out the notes a decent amount. It’s a feat to do that note after note after note! Vocally, Lightfoot sings smoothly and passionately throughout Lightfoot!.

What made me a little sad about Lightfoot! was that when it came time to think about the superlative track, I realized the song that affected me most was one of the three songs that Lightfoot had not written. But when Lightfoot sings “Passions will part to a warm melody / As fires will sometimes turn cold / Like petals in the wind / We're puppets to the silver strings of souls / Of changes / Your tears will be trembling now we're somewhere else / One last cup of wine we will pour / I'll kiss you one more time / And leave you on the rolling river shore / Of changes” (“Changes”), he has something to say and he says it so well! Phil Ochs wrote “Changes” and, inspired by listening to the song, I looked into him and I suspect even Lightfoot would be happy with the idea that I’m calling “Changes” the best song on the album (man, Phil Ochs had a terribly sad life!).

In the true fashion of classic Folk, several of Gordon Lightfoot’s songs are musical storysongs. Lightfoot sings about the desire to escape back to nature on the musical storysong with “Sixteen Miles (To Seven Lakes).” His musical protagonist has a goal, a backstory and a motivation, making for a very satisfying musical storysong. Over the course of the song, the narrator makes the journey: “Somewhere on the mountain I'll take another name / Rid my mind of memories and start my life again / Somewhere in the wilderness / I'll build a cabin small / Then forget so I / Won't remember you at all” (“Sixteen Miles (To Seven Lakes)”).

The new anthem around my home might well become Gordon Lightfoot’s “I’m Not Sayin’” (which is a close second to “Changes” for superlative song on the album). Despite having the simple rhymes “But still I won't deny or mistreat you / Baby if you let me have my way / I'm not sayin' I'll be sorry / For all the things that I might say that make you cry / I can't say I'll always do / The things you want me to / I'm not sayin' I'll be true but I'll try” (“I’m Not Sayin’”), Lightfoot has a universal message that can be understood by anyone who has ever been married!

For those not familiar with my ratings, I have a pretty strict set of criteria for my ratings; Lightfoot! is pretty solidly in the “average” rating, but the duration does not make great use of the c.d. medium and instrumentally, it is not strong enough to drive it up. To be clear, I liked Lightfoot! and it is making me excited for the month of exploring the works of Gordon Lightfoot, but I’m pretty sure there are c.d.s that put Lightfoot! with at least one other album on a single disc and that would be what I would recommend.

The best song is “Changes,” “Long River” might be the weak track as it left no impression on me whatsoever.

For other, prior, Artist Of The Month reviews, please check out my reviews of:
American Folk Ballads - Pete Seeger
Album 1700 - Peter, Paul, And Mary
Remember - Janis Ian

4.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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