•
Rating: The brilliance that seemed lost with "Old Dan's Records" reemerges with class and naturalness in 1974 with "Sundown"; a beautiful and commercially successful album that managed to climb the charts, reaching the first place in Canada and, for the first and only time, in the US Billboard 200, becoming the best-selling album of Gordon Lightfoot's career, driven by "Carefree Highway" and especially by the title track "Sundown," which became his most successful single, surpassing "If You Could Read My Mind."
Although it shares many traits with the previous "Old Dan's Records," including a certain lack of immediate impact, "Sundown" nevertheless manages to grow powerfully with each listen, standing out for a renewed stylistic pursuit, expressed in the use of instruments previously unheard of for Lightfoot, such as the English horn and the Moog synthesizer, as well as a greater presence of percussion and electric guitars, still quite accompanying but nonetheless well-presented, perceptible, and characterizing. Although not as much as "Summer Side Of Life," "Sundown" is an imaginative and creative album, "Somewhere U.S.A." with its sly and relaxed country is the perfect backdrop for a journey through the boundless semi-desert plains of Texas or Arizona. "High And Dry" falls into Gordon Lightfoot's "nautical" theme and is a lively and playful up-tempo with light and ironic reflections where the singer-songwriter duets with a female voice in the chorus. This characteristic identifying theme is also connected, with much more depth, to the undisputed apex of the album, "Seven Islands Suite": long, slow, and rhythmic, accompanied by orchestrations and a creeping Moog synthesizer, it has a hypnotic and twilight charm. Here the sea becomes a sort of place of the soul, providing a cue for reflections of a more general and introspective nature, in perhaps the most enigmatic text ever written by our artist. Not only "Seven Island Suite," but much of the album presents a reflective and almost cerebral mood: the brief and highly refined "Circle Of Steel," a subtle and dreamlike folk enriched by bells and accompanying choirs, with an English horn that hints at the title track's melody, features equally cryptic lyrics; "Is There Anyone Home" and "The Watchman's Gone" continue the musical discourse begun in "Don Quixote" with "Beautiful" and continued in much of "Old Dan's Records," enriched with synthesizers in the former case and orchestrations in the latter, with a sound leaning towards blues. These are meditative songs with a nuanced and almost ethereal charm that only emerges after a few careful listens; this style is also expressed in the successful single "Sundown," a refined metaphor once again inspired by the problematic love life of the singer-songwriter, with an effective bass line that sets the tempo for the melody, seductive enough and decidedly more passionate and earthy than the two previous episodes; which finally flows into "Carefree Highway," serene and liberating, enriched by a touch of orchestral airiness.
In an album that is too nuanced for long stretches to capture on the first listen, Gordon Lightfoot once again relies on the element of surprise to close, but this time not with epic compositions in the style of "Cabaret" or "Patriot's Dream," but with a simple, poignant ballad, "Too Late For Prayin'," one of the best ever written by the minstrel of Toronto, rich in melancholy and bitter disillusionment, yet engaging and emphatic enough to immediately strike the listener, right to the heart, thanks to the always masterful orchestrations and a vocal performance of great intensity and pathos that brings the chapter "Sundown" to a close. Despite the commercial success it garnered, it is not the best nor the most immediate album in the singer-songwriter's discography, but it represents an important turning point in his artistic path, a turn that through "Cold On The Shoulder" in 1975 would reach its definitive fruition with "Summertime Dream."
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Seven Island Suite (06:03)
Seven islands to the high side of the bay, 'cross the bay
To the sunset through the blue light of a fiery autumn haze
We went walking on the high side of the bay on a chilly morn
And we saw how leaves had fallen on the beds where trees were born
Any man in his right mind could not fail to be made aware
Any woman with a gift of wisdom would not seek her answers there
Seven islands to the high side of the bay if you're looking west
To the sunset you can see it, all in fiery autumn dress
Anytime would be the right time to come up to your bed of boughs
Anybody with a wish to wander could not fail but to be aroused
Living high in the city, guess you think it's a pretty good way
You get to learn but when you get burned you got nothing to say
You seem to think because you got chicken to go you're in luck
Fortune will not find you in your mansion or your truck
Brothers will desert you when you're down and shit out of luck
Look around at the morning, guess you're doing the best you can
Surely you know that when you go nobody gives you a hand
Think of the air you're breathing in, think of the time you waste
Think of the right and wrong and consider the frown on your face
It's time you tried living on the high side of the bay, you need a rest
Any woman or a man with a wish to fade away could be so blessed
Fortune will not find you in your mansion turned to gold
Brothers will desert you when your nights turn long and cold
If you feel it you better believe it, you're gonna see it, so you really
know
It is rising like a feather, dipping and dancing from below
There's a new wave that is breaking in the wake of a passing ship
Every nation's gonna be shaken, put it together, don't let it slip
It's time you tried living on the high side of the bay, you need a rest
Any man or a woman with a wish to fade away could be so blessed
Seven islands to the high side of the bay, 'cross the bay
To the sunset through the blue light of a fiery autumn haze
To the sunset through the blue light of a fiery autumn haze
07 Sundown (03:37)
I Can See Her Lyin' Back In Her Satin Dress
In A Room Where Ya Do What Ya Don't Confess
Sundown, You Better Take Care
If I Find You Beenn Creepin' 'Round My Back Stairs
Sundown, Ya Better Take Care
If I Find You Been Creepin' 'Round My Back Stairs
She's Been Lookin' Like A Queen In A Sailor's Dream
And She Don't Always Say What She Really Means
Sometimes I Think It's A Shame
When I Get Feelin' Better When I'm Feelin' No Pain
Sometimes I Think It's A Shame
When I Get Feelin' Better When I'm Feelin' No Pain
I Can Picture Every Move That A Man Could Make
Getting Lost In Her Lovin' Is Your First Mistake
Sundown, You Better Take Care
If I Find You Been Creepin' 'Round My Back Stairs
Sometimes I Think It's A Sin
When I Feel Like I'm Winnin' When I'm Losin' Again
I Can See Her Lookin' Fast In Her Faded Jeans
She's A Hard Lovin' Woman, Got Me Feelin' Mean
Sometimes I Think It's A Shame
When I Get Feelin' Better When I'm Feelin' No Pain
Sundown, You Better Take Care
If I Find You Been Creepin' 'Round My Back Stairs
Sundown, You Better Take Care
If I Find You Been Creepin' 'Round My Back Stairs
Sometimes I Think It's A Sin
When I Feel Like I'm Winnin' When I'm Losin' Again
08 Carefree Highway (03:45)
Picking up the pieces of my sweet shattered dream
I wonder how the old folks are tonight
Her name was Ann and I'll be damned if I recall her face
She left me not knowing what to do
Carefree Highway, let me slip away on you
Carefree Highway, you seen better days
The morning after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree Highway, let me slip away, slip away on you
Turning back the pages to the times I love best
I wonder if she'll ever do the same
Now the thing that I call living is just being satisfied
With knowing I got no one left to blame
Carefree Highway, got to see you my old flame
Carefree Highway, you seen better days
The morning after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree Highway, let me slip away, slip away on you
Searching through the fragments of my dream shattered sleep
I wonder if the years have closed her mind
I guess it must be wanderlust or trying to get free
From the good old faithful feeling we once knew
Carefree Highway, let me slip away on you
Carefree Highway, you seen better days
The morning after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree Highway, let me slip away, slip away on you
Let me slip away on you
Carefree Highway, got to see you my old flame
Carefree Highway, you seen better days
The morning after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree Highway, let me slip away, slip away on you
Loading comments slowly
