Gordon Lightfoot

One of the leading singer/songwriters of the 1960s and '70s, Gordon Lightfoot was Canada's most successful contemporary folk artist, establishing himself as an important songwriter in the mid-'60s and going on to become a major international recording star in the following decade. Lightfoot's songs are literate but down to earth, and deal with personal matters as well as global issues in a manner that's poetic yet accessible, and his rich, strong voice is a superb vehicle for his material, though his songs are versatile enough that many artists have enjoyed success with his tunes.

One of the leading singer/songwriters of the 1960s and '70s, Gordon Lightfoot was Canada's most successful contemporary folk artist, establishing himself as an important songwriter in the mid-'60s and going on to become a major international recording star in the following decade. Lightfoot's songs are literate but down to earth, and deal with personal matters as well as global issues in a manner that's poetic yet accessible, and his rich, strong voice is a superb vehicle for his material, though his songs are versatile enough that many artists have enjoyed success with his tunes.

Summer Side of Life is Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's seventh album. It was released in 1971 on the Reprise Records Label. The album marked a radical departure from the sound Lightfoot had established on Sit Down Young Stranger in its use of drums and electronic instrumentation, to which he would later return in the second half of the decade. “Redwood Hill” contains elements of bluegrass music.

Gordon Lightfoot is a genre unto himself. Neither pop nor folk nor country nor rock, his music is unvarnished, direct, a statement from one heart to another (as Lightfoot has stated, “I like to keep things simple. I don’t like to make them complicated”). And this uncompromising stance has not only made him a legend (particularly in his native Canada, where he is a full-fledged icon), but also, somewhat paradoxically, brought him huge commercial success (which, ironically, has in turn caused some to discount his prodigious songwriting talent). For Gordon Lightfoot never set out to be a “popular” singer-songwriter. When he signed with Warner Bros. and began working with producer Lenny Waronker, Lightfoot thought of himself as an album artist, and, indeed, the Lightfoot-Waronker songwriter-producer partnership (with a brief period with Joe Wissert as producer) yielded nine charting albums—and that’s not even counting the compilations—highlighted by a #1 slot for 1974’s Sundown.

Gordon Lightfoot is a genre unto himself. Neither pop nor folk nor country nor rock, his music is unvarnished, direct, a statement from one heart to another (as Lightfoot has stated, “I like to keep things simple. I don’t like to make them complicated”). And this uncompromising stance has not only made him a legend (particularly in his native Canada, where he is a full-fledged icon), but also, somewhat paradoxically, brought him huge commercial success (which, ironically, has in turn caused some to discount his prodigious songwriting talent). For Gordon Lightfoot never set out to be a “popular” singer-songwriter. When he signed with Warner Bros. and began working with producer Lenny Waronker, Lightfoot thought of himself as an album artist, and, indeed, the Lightfoot-Waronker songwriter-producer partnership (with a brief period with Joe Wissert as producer) yielded nine charting albums—and that’s not even counting the compilations—highlighted by a #1 slot for 1974’s Sundown.

Gordon Lightfoot is a genre unto himself. Neither pop nor folk nor country nor rock, his music is unvarnished, direct, a statement from one heart to another (as Lightfoot has stated, “I like to keep things simple. I don’t like to make them complicated”). And this uncompromising stance has not only made him a legend (particularly in his native Canada, where he is a full-fledged icon), but also, somewhat paradoxically, brought him huge commercial success (which, ironically, has in turn caused some to discount his prodigious songwriting talent). For Gordon Lightfoot never set out to be a “popular” singer-songwriter. When he signed with Warner Bros. and began working with producer Lenny Waronker, Lightfoot thought of himself as an album artist, and, indeed, the Lightfoot-Waronker songwriter-producer partnership (with a brief period with Joe Wissert as producer) yielded nine charting albums—and that’s not even counting the compilations—highlighted by a #1 slot for 1974’s Sundown.

"Summertime Dream" is Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's 12th original album, released on the Reprise Records label in 1976. It peaked at #1 on the Canadian RPM national album chart, and #12 on the US Billboard pop chart. The album marked Lightfoot's commercial zenith in a remarkable period of popularity which had begun with the 1970 hit, "If You Could Read My Mind". He would never again achieve the same level of commercial success. The album shot to popularity on the back of the haunting ballad, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", which told the story of the final hours of SS Edmund Fitzgerald which had sunk on Lake Superior in November 1975. The song remains popular to this day and has been credited with making the sinking of Edmund Fitzgerald the most famous maritime incident in the history of the Great Lakes. "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" reached #1 in Canada on November 20, 1976. In the US, it peaked at #2 on the pop chart and #50 on the country chart while "Race Among the Ruins" peaked at #65 on the pop chart.

Gord's Gold, Vol. 2 is a compilation album released by Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot in 1988. Like the first Gord's Gold collection, Vol. 2 features re-recordings of earlier hits alongside the contemporary material. On Gord's Gold only the early songs that didn't match Lightfoot's 1970s sound (and whose original masters were owned by Lightfoot's former label, United Artists) were re-recorded. However, on Vol. 2 all tracks, apart from "Make Way (For the Lady)," "Ghosts of Cape Horn," Baby Step Back," and "It's Worth Believin'" were re-recorded. The album also contains the first appearance of "If It Should Please You," a previously unrecorded song that the band often performed in concert. Some tracks on Vol. 2 that had been released during the 1980s sound almost identical to their original recording. Additionally, the re-recorded tracks were recorded live in the studio.