What better way to follow up Gordon Lightfoot on our belated Canada Day vinyl celebration than ‘ol Gord himself? This time the self-titled ‘Lightfoot!‘ album.
Whatever you do, don’t forget the exclamation mark as it’s ‘Lightfoot!‘, as opposed to simply ‘Lightfoot‘…all mellow and sedate like.
However you pronounce it, this is Gord’s debut album from 1966 – despite it’s being recorded two years earlier in 1964.
Lightfoot was already 27 at the time of this debut, which might have accounted in part for the unusually fully developed maturity and confidence on this recording, in both his songwriting and vocals. I contains some of his best compositions, including ‘Early Mornin’ Rain‘, ‘I’m Not Sayin”, ‘The Way I Feel‘, ‘Lovin’ Me‘, and ‘Ribbon of Darkness‘.
At this point, Lightfoot was still including some covers in his repertoire, and he handles numbers by Phil Ochs (‘Changes‘), Ewan McColl (‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face‘), and Hamilton Camp (‘Pride of Man’) well.
And what a fantastic debut it is for Lightfoot; sparse, Lightfoot’s 12 string guitar, choir boy voice, and Bill Lee on bass, as well as few others helping out on guitar.
The album cover kind of says it all: this is some perfect laid back tunage a la Canadiana on this otherwise lazy Sunday afternoon.
