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Gordon Lightfoot - Complete Greatest Hits

Calling this the "complete greatest hits", is like taking 20 passages from the bible and saying "complete Greatest Hits". This collection falls woefully short of resembling anything like a "Greatest hits" album/cd, let alone complete. It sort of reminds me of the painful rehash/mash called "gords Gold". I have seen Lightfoot in concert several times from the late 60's through the 80's. I have , or have had, everything he ever did on vinyl. At every concert he talked about how much he loved writing and singing music, particularly ballads about historic events. It hurts when I hear his name mentioned and the reaction is "oh, The shipwreck song....". Lightfoot wrote so many wonderfully simple and fun songs like "saturday clothes, "old dans records", and more that would not make a greatest hits. But the real tragedy here is the songs that speak to who Lightfoot really is, and get no play. Where is "The Ballad of the Yarnouth castle, "The Patriots Dream", "Ode to Big Blue", Cherokee Bend", "miguel"? Maybe they aren't here because they were album cuts and are longer than 5 minutes. It really baffles me when record companies put together these collections and throw them out like promises from a politician. One of Gord's best songs was the flip side to "If You Could Read My Mind", A ballad called "Sit Down Young Stranger". It was a vietnam protest song, but you wouldn't know it just by hearing it. Lightfoot was a Canadian, Maybe thats why he wasn't courted and promoted in The U.S. by record companies. Gord could weave words into song as well as any of the best American singer/songwriters, including Dylan. I recently read about a box set from Simon and Garfunkel. It includes their first 5 studio albums. Great! Now only if you could do the same for Lightfoot with either his united artists, Reprise, and Warner Brothers recording, you would have something. 

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This article was last modified Nov 08, 2006 06:31 GMT.

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