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Fourteen songs of disarming simplicity: voice, acoustic guitar, and some sporadic bass lines, no percussion, no surrounding arrangements to speak of: this is all young Gordon Lightfoot needs to debut in the music market with a masterpiece, which will prove to be just the first, memorable piece of the career of this extraordinary singer-songwriter who will build his legend over the next ten years without ever making a mistake, becoming a cult artist among the most recognized, admired, and covered of all time.
Composed in 1964 but published by United Artists only two years later thanks to the interest of Albert Grossman, "Lightfoot!" immediately impresses with the class and mastery with which Gord manages to express such varied sensations and sounds with an absolutely simple and essential style, as well as the very high average level of the compositions: "Lightfoot!" contains at least half a dozen classics of the Toronto folksinger; above all, the legendary and often-covered "Early Morning Rain," a song that fully represents the spirit and style of this album, whose marvelous lyrics imbued with sadness, self-pity, and bitter irony consecrate Lightfoot as a master of words with few equals in his genre, while also giving further meaning to a melody that in its simplicity is impregnated with the epic and poignant charm of great classics and expresses the most strictly folk side of this album, also found in the sweet and bucolic "Steel Rail Blues" and "Ribbon Of Darkness", wonderful and moving frescoes of loves to rediscover (the former) or definitively lost (the latter) and in "Long River", a serene and contemplative poetry of the wonderful scenarios of the Canadian mountains.
In addition to pure and simple folk, "Lightfoot!" also makes room for more elaborate songs closer to blues, among which stands out as a masterpiece a Phil Ochs cover, "Changes", with a melancholic mood yet terribly fluid, elegant, and caressing, the rhythmic "For Lovin' Me", another great warhorse of Gord's, and the shadowy "The Way I Feel" and "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face", written by Ewan MacColl, father of the Kirstie made famous by the duet with Shane McGowan in "Fairytale Of New York", ending with "Oh, Linda", stark, bitter, and almost angular, based solely on Gordon's voice accompanied by an obsessive bass line, and "Peaceful Waters", with a nocturnal and almost mystical atmosphere, where Our one's deep yet clear voice is expressed in its most intense and characterizing interpretation; while they stand out as separate episodes, the third cover of the album, "Pride Of Man" by Hamilton Camp, the only song of the record to propose social themes, which will provide Gord with inspiration for his "Black Day In July" of 1968 and "Rich Man's Spiritual", another masterpiece with its cheerful and absolutely catchy and memorable melody surrounded by an ironic and genius text, which stylishly and lightly initiates a marvelous album by an artist considered in his home country as a true living legend, a reputation perfectly deserved thanks to the immense contribution provided to so many other artists and more generally to the music itself with a multitude of timeless classics that constitute an artistic legacy destined to last forever, worth remembering and reviewing.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
03 The Way I Feel (03:42)
©1966 by Gordon Lightfoot
The way I feel is like a robin
Whose babes have flown to come no more
Like a tall oak tree alone and cryin'
When the birds have flown and the nest is bare
Now a woman Lord is like a young bird
And the tall oak tree is a young man's heart
Among its boughs you'll find her nesting
When the nights are cool she is warm and dry
Your coat of green it will protect her
Her wings will grow, you love will too
But all too soon your mighty branches
Will cease to hold her, and she'll fly from you
Now the way I feel is like a robin
Whose babes have flown to come no more
Like a tall oak tree alone and crying
When the birds have flown and the nest is bare
When the birds have flown and the nest is bare
04 For Lovin' Me (02:26)
That's what you get for lovin' me
That's what you get for lovin' me
Ev'ry thing you had is gone
As you can see
That's what you get for lovin' me
I ain't the kind to hang around
With any new love that I found
'Cause movin' is my stock in trade
I'm movin' on
I won't think of you when I'm gone.
So don't you shed a tear for me
B'cause I ain't the love you thought I'd be
I got a hundred more like you
So don't be blue
I'll have a thousand 'fore I'm through
Now there you go you're cryin' again
Now there you go you're cryin' again
But then someday when your poor heart
Is on the mend
Well I just might pass this way again
That's what you get for lovin' me
That's what you get for lovin' me
Everything you had is gone
As you can see
That's what you get for lovin' me
That's what you get for lovin' me
07 Early Morning Rain (03:00)
In the early morning rain with a dollar in my hand
With an aching in my heart and my pockets full of sand
Now, I'm a long way from home and I miss my loved ones so
In the early morning rain with no place to go
Out on runway number nine a big 707's set to go
But, I'm stuck here in the grass where the cold wind blows
Now, the liquor tasted good and the women all were fast
Well, there she goes, my friend, well she's going down at last
Hear the mighty engines roar - see the silver bird on high
She's away and westward bound - far above the clouds she'll fly
There the morning rain don't fall and the sun always shines
She'll be flying over my home in about three hours time
This old airport's got me down - it's no earthly good to me
'cause I'm stuck here on the ground as cold and drunk as I can be
You can't jump a jet plane like you can a freight train
So, I'd best be on my way in the early morning rain
You can't jump a jet plane like you can a freight train
So, I'd best be on my way in the early morning rain
08 Steel Rail Blues (02:48)
Well I got my mail late last night
A letter from a girl who found the time to write
To her lonesome boy somewheres in the night
She sent me a railroad ticket too
To take me to her lovin' arms
And the big steel rail gonna carry me home to the one I love
Well I been out here many long days
I haven't found a place that I could call my own
Not a two bit bed to lay my body on
I been stood up I bin shook down
I been dragged into the sand
And the big steel rail gonna carry me home to the one I love
Well I been uptight most every night
Walkin' along the streets of this old town
Not a friend around to tell my troubles to
My good old car she done broke down
'Cause I drove it into the ground
And the big steel rail gonna carry me home to the one I love
Well I look over yonder across the plain
The big drive wheels are poundin' along the ground
Gonna get on board and I'll be homeward bound
Now I ain't had a home cooked meal
And Lord I need one now
And the big steel rail gonna carry me home to the one I love
Now here I am with my hat in my hand
Standin' on the broad highway will you give a ride
To a lonesome boy who missed the train last night
I went in town for one last round
And I gambled my ticket away
And the big steel rail won't carry me home to the one I love
10 I'm Not Sayin' (02:27)
I'm not sayin' that I love you
I'm not sayin' that I'll care if you love me
I'm not sayin' that I'll care
I'm not sayin' I'll be there when you want me
I can't give my heart to you
Or tell you that I'll sing your name up to the sky
I can't lay the promise down
That I'll always be around when you need me
Now I may not be alone each time you see me
Along the street or in a small cafe
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
Now I may not be alone each time you see me
Or show up when I promised that I would
But still I won't deny or mistreat you
Baby if you love me like you should
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 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
12 Ribbon of Darkness (02:40)
Ribbon of darkness over me
Since my true love walked out the door
Tears I never had before
Ribbon of darkness over me
Clouds a-atherin' o'er my head
That kill the day and hide the sun
That shroud the night when day is done
Ribbon of darkness over me
Rain is falling on the meadow
Where once my love and I did lie
Now she is gone from the meadow
My love goodbye
Ribbon of darkness over me
Where once the world was young as spring
Where flowers did bloom and birds did sing
Ribbon of darkness over me
Here in this cold room lyin'
Don't want to see no one but you
Lord I wish I could be dyin'
To forget you
Oh how I wish your heart could see
How mine just aches and breaks all day
Come on home and take away
This ribbon of darkness over me
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