Gordon Lightfoot: Summer Side Of Life CD Track Listing

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Gordon Lightfoot Summer Side Of Life (1971)
1994 Reprise Records, Inc. / Warner Archives\n\nOriginally Released 1971\nCD Edition Released June 28, 1994\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Gordon Lightfoot's friendly folk sound grew even stronger on Summer Side of Life, an album that has him curling up with both his guitar and his kind, fragile voice. Even though the album that preceded it, 1970's Sit Down Young Stranger, fared better on the charts, Summer Side of Life followed in its footsteps, proving that Lightfoot was going to be around for quite a while. His approachable, confiding sound is best heard within the earnestness of the title track, and on the country bumpkin fritter of "Cotton Jenny," a song later covered by fellow Canadian Anne Murray. Lightfoot's singing rests lightly on his acoustic guitar, a trait that would become even more recognizable in his future work, but here it is found in tracks like "Same Old Loverman" and "Redwood Hill," and in the vagabond feel of "Go My Way." Not only do the songs begin to embrace his trademarked cottage country ambience on this album, but Lightfoot begins to reveal his love of Canadiana on tracks like "10 Degrees & Getting Colder," "Love & Maple Syrup," and "Nous Vivons Ensemble," which translates into "we all live together." With Gordon Lightfoot's honest, unhindered composure now becoming well-known in the U.S. and not just in Canada, Summer Side of Life helped strengthen his songwriting and refine his delicate vocal style, which, in turn, made 1972's Old Dan's Records and 1973's Don Quixote two of his best albums. -- Mike DeGagne\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThere are some early masterpieces here, April 12, 2006 \nBy Richard Alaska "Rick Alaska - Songwriter" (Naperville, Illinois)\nFrom the ethereally plaintive 'Talking in Your Sleep,' to the romp of 'Cotton Jenny,' this is quintessential Gordon Lightfoot. I'm haunted by 'Ten Degrees and Getting Colder,' but it's a good haunting. This is one of the earlier great 12 string songs that Gordon has continued to pour out over time. The 'Summer Side of Life' itself is a subtle treatment of the Viet Nam experience that combines Folk with soaring Gospel. 'Nous Vivons Ensemble' seems to be from another era, but still draws your attention, and Miguel has a warm and catchy riff that you find youself tuning back to... \n\nIn some ways it's a period piece, bringing you back to 1970. This is clear in the Cotton Jenny riff at the end of each verse (after the wheels of love line) - it actually has a late 60s pop feel. Above all 'Talking in Your Sleep' stands as timeless. It could fit in today's music, and is the crowning work of this collection. \n\nThe other songs have their points, it may just take a little longer for them to sink in, as is sometimes the case with Lightfoot. You start out with two or three hooks and end up wanting to listen to almost everything. I would have bought it just to hear the following verse "Now he's traded off his Martin, but his troubles are not over, for his feet are almost frozen and the sun is sinkin low." \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nOutstanding Lightfoot, May 28, 2004 \nBy A Customer\nThis is a great CD, probably his finest. Ironically, "Cotton Jenny" - the one song that most will be familiar with - is the weakest song here. The second "side" in particular is far more diverse than most Gordon Lightfoot tends to be. Songs like "Same Old Loverman" and "Love and Maple Syrup" are just as good if not better than his singles from the era. Even if you have the Complete Greatest Hits, this is well worth owning! \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nForget the compilations - buy this, October 2, 2002 \nBy Brett Simpson (Auckland, New Zealand)\nThis is a dazzling set of gorgeous accoustic guitar playing, strong, moving lyrics and beautiful melodies galore, all held together by Lightfoot's warm and expressive voice.\nLightfoot's work does not lend itself to being easily compiled (as witness that such great tracks as "Miguel" and "Love and Maple Syrup" aren't even to be found on his 4CD box), so I'm afraid you just have to buy as many of his individual albums as you can afford. \n\nAnd this is one of the best. Along with the two cuts mentioned above "10 Degrees and Getting Colder", "Go My Way" and "Nous Vivons Ensemble" are especially worthy of praise, as are the two very minor chart entries taken from this album: the title track and "Talking In Your Sleep". Essential. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nOne of the best of the best, June 5, 2002 \nBy A Customer\n\nEvery year from 1970 through 1976, Gordon Lightfoot released a string of superlative albums. This is one of the best of them, as well as being one of the most unusual.\nFor a start, it was recorded in Nashville. Along with his always-excellent touring musicians Red Shea (lead guitar) and Rick Haynes (bass), Lightfoot is joined by many of the top Nashville musicians from that era. Thus, all of the songs have a much different sound that what you may be accustomed to.\n\nAdditionally, this album features some unusually-structured compositions for Lightfoot, as well as some chord movements that don't often crop up elsewhere in his (considerable) body of work.\n\nProduced by Joe Wissert and released in 1971, Summer Side of Life is filled to the brim with great songs. It starts off with "10 Degrees and Getting Colder," and you may think "Well, this is pretty much what I expected from Lightfoot," in terms of the arrangement. But suddenly the haunting story-song "Miguel" begins, and you realize you're into a whole new area. Filled with some nifty chord changes and some exquisite lead guitar work courtesy of Red Shea, the song is among the (many) unsung Lightfoot classics. The title track is a brilliant study of the young men being drawn into the vortex of Vietnam, with instrumentation and choral work you won't find on any other Lightfoot recording. The perennial favorite "Cotton Jenny" makes its debut on the album; other highlights include "Nous Vivons Ensemble" (half of which is sung in French), the somewhat Elvis-y "Same Old Loverman" (the album doesn't detail individual credits for the musicians, but I would assume that's Junior Husky supplying the fabulous acoustic bass work on the track), "Love and Maple Syrup" (again an unusual arrangement), and one of my favorite Lightfoot tracks of all: "Cabaret." This song is actual two songs put together--at first listen you may not think they have much to do with one another. But the two songs actually are thematically connected: From "sounds of laughter on ladies gay" in the misty past(bringing to mind Tolouse La-Trec posters) to the stark realism of the present ("sitting in a roadside diner"), the song cleverly presents a different twist on the hackneyed phrase "life is cabaret."\n\nSummer Side of Life represents Gordon Lightfoot at the height of his powers. Don't miss this one. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nLightfoot Reaches His Peak, December 28, 2000 \nBy Kurt Harding "bon vivant" (Boerne TX)\nAs Gordon Lightfoot's fame grew, his music evolved and gradually reached its peak with Summer Side of Life and its follow-up smash, Don Quixote. This is one of his most country albums, not Nashville country, but a refreshingly different sound that is infused with a Canadian perspective. Lightfoot's ballads definitely do not reek of urban sensibilities but speak to that which is inbred in many of us who are most alive when in a natural setting. Back in the 60s and 70s many free spirits hitch-hiked around the continent so we can relate to songs like Cabaret and 10 Degrees and Getting Colder. You can hear Lightfoot's love of nature in Redwood Hill, you can hear his concern for his fellows in Miguel and concern for his country in Nous Vivons Ensemble. His romantic side and his knack for wordplay are apparent in Talking in Your Sleep and Love and Maple Syrup. A mild chauvinism springs forth in Go My Way and finally, he shows a different side to country music on Same Old Loverman and Cotton Jenny. As balladeers go, Lightfoot has few peers. Every song will spark a frisson of delight as you listen to his masterful lyrics spin tale after tale. No Lightfoot "desert island" compilation would be complete without this one right near the top of the list. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nAn overlooked album in the Lightfoot catalog, July 28, 1998 \nBy A Customer\n\nReleased shortly after "If You Could Read My Mind," "Summer Side of Life" produced no hits of the caliber of that record's title song. But there are gems here, like "10 Degrees and Getting Colder" and "Go My Way," both of which have been covered by other artists; "Cotton Jenny," a fan favorite at his live shows; and the strange but haunting "Cabaret," which sounds like two songs that meld into one effortless whole. However, the record's narrative masterstroke is "Miguel," which, without preaching or politicizing, encapsulates the terrible dilemma of an illegal alien who finds himself in trouble with the law. "Summer Side of Life" is the work of a mature and gifted songwriter, and if you are a Lightfoot fan and have never heard it, you are missing a small gem in your CD collection. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nGreat Beginnings for Gord at Warner/Reprise, July 31, 2000 \nBy Al Bevens (Louisville, Kentucky USA)\nGord's first album for Warner/Reprise is evocative of the artist's period of greatest musical strength, beginning with this album and going through Salute. It starts of with two strong story-tellers, 10 Degrees and Getting Colder and Miguel. It explodes with energy on Redwood Hill and warbles of true love with Cotton Jenny. This whole album brings back memories of those times. Though not through the roof in quite the same way that If You Could Read My Mind and Sundown are, Summer Side of Life is a fun, exhilarating, and most excellent album. \n\n\nHalf.com Details \nProducer: Joe Wissert \n\nAlbum Notes\nPersonnel includes: Gordon Lightfoot, Red Shea, Richard Haynes.\n\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nNo matter how intense he looks on the cover photograph, Gordon Lightfoot is a wonderful name for Gordon Lightfoot. His voice sounds so much like a guitar that syllables are frequently heard just as notes, and the purity of the voice conspires with over-refined production to divert attention from lyrics: the ear tends to skim them, following a phrase but not a sentence. Strings are used more conservatively than on his last album, If You Could Read My Mind, but there is not, as "Baby It's Allright" on that record, a successful freak of mood, a good loud song. Summer Side of Life is pretty but not beautiful.\n\n"10 Degrees and Getting Colder" is about a hitchhiking minstrel, "raised up in Milwaukee/Though he never was that famous/To the taverns he would go," and there's a nice line about the weather being 98.6 and rising. "Miguel" is a ballad that includes the Mission of Saint Augustine, a gun from the wall, hiding out, and the death of the outlaw-hero while his newborn child lies on its mother's breast. The trouble is that he does very little with the cliches, which require some sort of artistic violation so that we can penetrate. Lightfoot's are mostly as-is.\n\n"Summer Side of Life," the title cut, is nostalgia-for-the-present, and the, uh, bouncy tune renders the lyrics a bit silly. Kenny Buttrey's drumming justifies the rather over-elaborate production, or it might be that the overelaborate production justifies what would otherwise be over-energetic drumming. Background vocals here and a couple of other places on the LP are poorly recorded.\n\n"Cotton Jenny" indicates a Neil Diamond influence, and would be a peachy opportunity for a Top-40 group, the Fifth Edition or Dimension or one of those other Fifths. Lightfoot's acoustic on this is kind of stuffy, but the steel guitar is ticklish, all right.\n\nIn the second side's first song, "Nous Vivons Ensemble," Light-foot is closest to a new synthesis, injecting some simple jazz into the purest folk guitar, and the bridge, like some of the things on New Morning, picks you up by the neck and lets you down slow. "You and I/Were asleep in the rock of ages/Remember the unborn children still to come ..."\n\nLightfoot at times seem less convinced of his songs, less delighted with them, than other artists who've covered them. (Barbra Streisand's version of "If You Could Read My Mind" is good precisely because you can tell she really loves the song, loves singing it.) On the refrain, however, of "Same Old Loverman," Lightfoot seems happy to be singing, enjoying it, and he performs better than anywhere else on the record. The "believe-me-ooh" chorus, though, is less than convincing, and the well-done piano work collapses at the finish and fades the number out lamely, with a tinkle.\n\nThe best song on the album is "Love and Maple Syrup," on which he is most self-consciously creating something beautiful--as on the previous record's "Your Love's Return" ("Roses are waiting for dewdrops to fall"). Here: "Love and maple syrup go together like/The sticky winds of winter when they meet." A scatsung chorus is pulled off, and the transition in energy is remarkable--the bridge is metallic, much like "Woodstock" by Matthews Southern Comfort, and you want it to go on and on.\n\n"Cabaret" is sort of the opposite of "Love and Maple Syrup," simultaneously scattered and overambitious. The introductory guitar-work is more than pleasant, at points reminiscent of "Classical Gas," but the first of two melodies is soppy, and trumpets punctuate lines like "Yesterday's a cabaret/Gowns of satin on ladies gay." Still, any song that rhymes Reno and Mendicino can't be all bad. (RS 87 -- Jul 22, 1971) -- \nARTHUR SCHMIDT
This folk cd contains 11 tracks and runs 38min 52sec.
Freedb: 87091a0b

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Gordon Lightfoot: Summer Side Of Life CD Track Listing

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