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Rating:
"Back Here On Earth" from 1968, the fourth studio album by Gordon Lightfoot: the title is a statement of intent, after the more orchestral sounds of "The Way I Feel" and "Did She Mention My Name?", more than good albums; but which today sound perhaps a bit disjointed and aged. The minstrel from Toronto takes a step back: returns to the essential, to acoustic, to pure and simple folk of his dazzling beginnings. However, "Back Here On Earth" is not a new "Lightfoot!", it lacks the charm, the poignant atmosphere, the bucolic, ancient, and timeless poetry of that disarming debut, but it is in every respect the second great album of our artist— a short and direct album, with an essential, straightforward, and vibrant temperament.
As in "Lightfoot!", the instrumentation here is stripped to the bone: voice, acoustic guitars, and bass, yet the album offers various styles and atmospheres, there's absolutely no room for boredom and repetitiveness. "Long Way Back Home" and "Unsettled Ways", are typical lightfootian folk songs with a waltz rhythm, simple and crystal-clear melody, with a touch of emphasis that immediately stamps itself in your head; "Long Thin Dawn" instead focuses on a lively and rustic sound, more American than Canadian in taste, the splendid "Marie Christine" and "Don't Beat Me Down", propose a true folk rock without electric current with robust and sustained arpeggios, well-marked rhythms and a sharp and decisive voice without being excessively rough: elegance and a certain touch of lyricism are indeed within Gord Lightfoot's strengths, and even "Back Here On Earth" offers moments of great songwriting, such as "Bitter Green", the album's lead single, which subtly tells, with tact and delicacy, the story of a lost love found too late, and for its scholarly style directly evokes the atmospheres of "Lightfoot!", "Affair On The 8th Avenue" is a ballad with smooth and distinctly noir atmospheres, filled with charm and suffering, and "Cold Hands From New York", narrates the disorientation of a stranger, trapped in the perils of the big city with an epic and decisive flair, like a true storyteller, and it is the longest and most refined song on the album, which closes softly with the brief and ecstatic "The Gypsy" and finally with the serene and liberating "If I Could", his personal manifesto and declaration of intent in which he sings "If I could stand like a rusty old man in his armor, if I could ride the steed that he rode in his time, I would turn his head away to the river and let him wander to the meadow grass, wild and free for everyone to see".
A great album, elegant, meticulous, that enchants with the beauty and evocativeness of the sounds and as always stunning lyrics, it's odd that it does not reach five stars; incredibly, Gordon Lightfoot has recorded at least four or five albums better than "Back Here On Earth", and that speaks volumes about the quality of our artist's repertoire, which, in the seven years following this album, will begin his unrepeatable golden age.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Bitter Green ()
©1968 by Gordon Lightfoot
Upon the bitter green she walked the hills above the town
Echo to her footsteps as soft as Eider down
Waiting for her master to kiss away her tears
Waiting through the years
Bitter Green they called her
Walking in the sun
Loving everyone that she met
Bitter Green they called her
Waiting in the sun
Waiting for someone to take her home
Some say he was a sailor who died away at sea
Some say he was a prisoner who never was set free
Lost upon the ocean he died there in the mist
Dreaming of her kiss
Bitter Green they called her
Walking in the sun
Loving everyone that she met
Bitter Green they called her
Waiting in the sun
Waiting for someone to take her home
But now the bitter green is gone, the hills have turned to rust
There comes a weary stranger, his tears fall in the dust
Kneeling by the churchyard in the autumn mist
Dreaming of a kiss
Bitter Green they called her
Walking in the sun
Loving everyone that she met
Bitter Green they called her
Waiting in the sun
Waiting for someone to take her home
Bitter Green they called her
Walking in the sun
Loving everyone that she met
Bitter Green they called her
Waiting in the sun
Waiting for someone to take her home
05 The Circle Is Small ()
It's alright for some, but not alright for me
When the one that I'm lovin' slips around
You think it's fine to do - things I cannot see
And you're doin' it to me
Baby can't you see that I know how it is
Chorus:
I can see it in your eyes
And feel it in the way you kiss my lips
I can hear it in your voice
Whenever we are talking like this
I can see what you believe in
When his name is mentioned and I die
I can watch the way you walk
The way you talk, the way you close your eyes
It's alright for some but not alright for me
When the one that I'm lovin' can't be found
The city where we live might be quite large
But the circle is small
Why not tell us all and then all of us will know
(Chorus)
It's alright to leave, but not alright to lie
When you come home and you can't say where you've been
You think it's fine to do things I cannot see
And you're doin' it to me
Baby can't you see that I know how it is
(Chorus repeat and fade)
08 Affair on 8th Avenue ()
The perfume that she wore was from some little store
On the down side of town
But it lingered on long after she'd gone
I remember it well
And our fingers entwined like ribbons of light
And we came through a doorway somewhere in the night
Her long flowing hair came softly undone
And it lay all around
And she brushed it down as I stood by her side
In the warmth of her love
And she showed me her treasures of paper and tin
And then we played a game only she could win
And she told me a riddle I'll never forget
Then left with the answer I've never found yet
How long, said she, can a moment like this
Belong to someone
What's wrong, what is right, when to live or to die
We must almost be born
So if you should ask me what secrets I hide
I'm only your lover, don't make me decide
The perfume that she wore was from some little store
On the down side of town
But it lingered on long after she'd gone
I remember it well
And she showed me her treasures of paper and tin
And then we played a game only she could win
And our fingers entwined like ribbons of light
And we came through a doorway somewhere in the night
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