Gordon Lightfoot "Gordon Lightfoot" 2001(comp) 1962-1978(rec)***

When random selection produced this CD for review, I realized an omission on my part: when an artist I like passes away, as it happened with Gordon Lightfoot a year ago, I usually spend some time listening to their records. In his case, I must have been preoccupied with something else; I don't remember listening to these songs recently. Granted, I don't have many of his albums in my collection: just this compilation and a 60's LP on vinyl. I remember owning one or two more vinyl records of his, but I seem to have sold them during the great vinyl purge. Infuriatingly, this compilation is one of those budget CDs that contain no information on the artist or recording year of the tracks within. I can't fathom why; would it cost more to add a few words? They wouldn't even waste more paper, the inner side of the booklet is completely blank. In any case, I researched the provenance of the selections, and it turns out that this isn't so bad a selection: almost all of the albums he released during this period (a dozen, in as many years) are represented by one of two tracks each, neatly presented in chronological order, the better to appreciate the artists' evolution. Starting with his very first 7' single "(Remember Me) I'm The One", a 1962 Elvis-like ballad, and the only cover here. The next entry ("I'm Not Sayin") comes from 1966, and his LP debut, Lightfoot. It shows a definite Dylan influence, with a touch of Phil Ochs in the vocal department. From 1967's The Way I Feel we get "Go Go Round" and "The Way I Feel", songs that remind me of Simon & Garfunkel. These are followed by the more upbeat, socially conscious, "Black Day In July" (Did She Mention My Name, 1968), a vivid recounting of the bloody Detroit race riots of the previous year. "Bitter Green" (Back Here On Earth, 1968) is lighter, with a hint of country a la Glen Campbell. "If You Could Read My Mind" (Sit Down Young Stranger, 1970) is another ballad in the same vein; from here on his songs retain the same influences but have richer, albeit always tasteful, orchestration, bridging the gap between earnest folk and MOR easy listening. I can only think of one other artist who did it as successfully, and that was Cat Stevens. "Talking In Your Sleep" and "Summer Side Of Life" come from the Summer Side Of Life LP (1971), "Beautiful" from Don Quixote (1972), and "Sundown" and "Carefree Highway" from 1974's Sundown. All are great, but the best are the ones on the two opposite ends of his pop folk hybrid: "Rainy Day People" (Cold On The Shoulder, 1975) is a smooth pop ballad, while "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" (Summertime Dream, 1976) is narrative folk at its very best. The compilation closes with "Race Among The Ruins" (also from Summertime Dream), and two selections from Endless Wire (1978): "The Circle Is Small" and "Daylight Katy". After that, Lightfoot's international popularity declined, although he still held national treasure status in his native Canada. Now, as with any compilation, the question is how good is this as an introduction to the artist? The plus points here are that it covers his most acclaimed period, and aims to be representative by including something from each release. Is this really "The Best Of" Gordon Lightfoot? To be fair, the compilers don't make any such claim; and indeed, there are some obvious omissions. On the other hand, what's here is pretty good; after all, if Dylan's quote that “Lightfoot died without ever having made a bad song” is true, one could not go too wrong with selecting material for this comp. I'd give this collection 3,5* for the songs, but 2* for the packaging. It should suffice for the very casual fan who only knows 3 or 4 of his songs, which they'd probably find here. I was one myself, but I'm now tempted to dig deeper.

***** for The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald 

**** for I'm Not Sayin', The Way I Feel, Black Day In July, Bitter Green, If You Could Read My Mind, Talking In Your Sleep, Sundown , Rainy Day People

*** for (Remember Me) I'm The One, Go Go Round,Summer Side Of Life, Beautiful, Carefree Highway, Race Among The Ruins, The Circle Is Small, Daylight Katy

Mark Lanegan "Whiskey for the Holy Ghost" 1994*****

Was Mark Lanegan the Tom Waits of grunge? Judging from this album, one might certainly surmise that. Not only is the album title and front cover positively Waits-ish, but his voice has the required grit, not to mention a world-weariness unbecoming of a man in his late 20's. Of course, even though Waits also sang like a washed-up old wino in his youth, he was just an observer of that decadent Bukowskian underworld. Lanegan's tortured vocal, on the other hand, was hard-earned; the horrific story of his trajectory from abused and neglected child to juvenile delinquent to junkie rock star has been well documented in his autobiography; when he sounds like he's singing from the gutter, that's because it's exactly where he was at the time. When he recorded these songs (1991-1993) he was still a member of his infamously dysfunctional band, Screaming Trees. He had already made a tentative step towards a solo career with his acoustic low key debut, but Whiskey... was the big one in terms of songwriting (by Lanegan exclusively), production, and performance. It proved to himself and to the world that he had what it takes to make great music on his own, an idea his former bandmates had tried to suppress. Here, he is the sole writer, lead singer, co-producer, and occasional guitarist. Dinosaur Jr. bassist Mike Johnson (co-producer, multi-instrumentalist) does most of the rest, while other friends also help out. The mood is mainly subdued and instruments mostly acoustic, although there are some louder tracks featuring distorted electric guitars (e.g. "Borracho"). The arrangements are generally subtle but not necessarily sparse - there's the odd piano, organ, sax, and violin, all used to good effect. For this album, Lanegan has admitted to deriving inspiration from Van Morrison and "southern gothic" novelist Cormac McCarthy; as always, the influence of Jim Morrison and Johnny Cash in his singing is also evident. The album opens with a bit of whistling, followed by folky acoustic guitar and wistful vocal ("The River Rise"). "Carnival" is more upbeat, akin to a Screaming Trees track with completely different instrumentation (great use of violin, here). "Pendulum" is another highlight, featuring the desert country sound that Calexico would popularize a few years later, while "House a Home"s slide guitar and violin also give off a country vibe. Beautiful harmonies and sax give "Sunrise" a lighter tone, but the rest of the album is comprised by mournful blues and ballads - of the best sort, I hasten to add. Whiskey... set a trend with grunge musicians who wanted to show their more mature/emotional side. Great albums in the same vein were released in the same year, including Alice In Chains' Jar Of Flies and Nirvana's mega-hit MTV Unplugged in New York. Furthermore Whiskey is not just where Lanegan found his true voice for the first time, but probably the purest expression of his art. He would go on to release cover albums, acoustic ones, hard rocking ones, to incorporate elements of electronic music, and to be a serial collaborator to, among others, QOTSA, Isobel Campbell, Greg Dulli etc. A diverse body of work, united by his unmistakable voice. It's a voice that makes basically all of these albums worth hearing, but if I only had one choice, this would probably be it.

***** for The River Rise, House a Home, Carnival, Sunrise, Pendulum

**** for Borracho, Kingdoms of Rain, Riding the Nightingale, El Sol, Dead on You

*** for Shooting Gallery, Judas Touch, Beggar's Blues

 

Neil Young "Songs For Judy" 1976(rec) 2018 (released)***

In my latest visit to the neighborhood record shop, I came across a large batch of 2nd hand Neil Young CDs, one of each title. Most of them I already had; of the rest, I chose a compilation of tracks from his most maligned period on Geffen Records (mid 80's) and one of the live "archive" recordings, Songs for Judy. One reason for choosing the latter was the expansive tracklist (22 songs, 80 minutes). Another was the positive reviews (85 on metacritic, an unusually high rating). For once, I'll put the cart before the horse, and say right away that I don't completely agree with the critics: these solo acoustic numbers don't impress me that much. They're not bad or anything; Young has certainly proved he's as adept in solo acoustic mode as he is in leading a rock-'n'-roll band, and never sounds bored or uninvested in the proceedings. And the immediacy and looseness one expects from this kind of one-man-show affair is present here. The singer is also in a talkative mood, sharing with his audience some stories, including the one about Judy Garland that gave this album its cover and title. All the above are valid reasons to acquire this CD, but the recording quality, and often the performances, lag behind those contained in other acoustic live LP's of his (e.g. Unplugged, the acoustic part of Live Rust). And now, here comes the horse, i.e. a few words about the provenance of these recordings: they come from Neil Young's fall 1976 tour with Crazy Horse. Before each night's band performance, he would act as his own support act and play a short solo set. These were recorded by guitar tech Joel Bernstein and journalist Cameron Crowe. As the songs Neil chose for this acoustic treatment changed every time, they were able to find a total of 22 different tracks. Bernstein and Crowe chose the best available performance of each song, and compiled them into a bootleg which became known as The Bernstein Tapes.  Songs For Judy is the official, chronologically re-sequenced, version of that bootleg. It contains the exact same performances; only, wherever possible, superior mixes were used. The main reason that caused the critic's excitement for this release is probably that a lot of these songs were unreleased at the time: “Campaigner” was released in 1977 (on the Decade compilation), "Pocahontas"  in '79 (on Rust Never Sleeps), "Too Far Gone" in '89 (Freedom), "White Line" in 1990 (Ragged Glory) etc. A beautiful piano ballad called "No One Seems To Know" had remained officially unreleased for 40+ years, until its inclusion here. It's interesting to note how Young presents those as-yet-unknown tracks, and how the audience reacts to them. Other than that, there are some of his best-loved songs (e.g. "After the Gold Rush", a surprising acoustic take on Buffalo Springfield's "Mr. Soul", "Heart Of Gold" and a few more tracks from his best selling Harvest LP), as well as some lesser known tracks not included in a live album ever before. My personal favorite is "A Man Needs a Maid”; here without the orchestral arrangements of the studio version but incorporating the melody of -then still unreleased- “Like a Hurricane”. One of those moments only significant in retrospect, of which this album has quite a few. To summarize, this is a decent enough collection of -admittedly mostly great- tunes, featuring Young accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and occasional harmonica and keyboards. It captures an important time in the artist's evolution, it gives fans a peak at the early form of songs that were still officially unreleased, and even contains some great moments of acoustic balladry. But most of the songs are available in better performances elsewhere, and the lone troubadour thing starts to grate after a while. If you listen to the entire CD and aren't bored in the least by the time 6-minute closer "Sugar Mountain" finishes, you' must be a much bigger Neil Young fan than I am - and I've bought more than 30 of his albums.

**** for No One Seems to Know, Heart of Gold, After the Gold Rush, Mr. Soul, A Man Needs a Maid, Pocahontas

*** for Too Far Gone, White Line, Love Is a Rose, Human Highway, Tell Me Why, Mellow My Mind, Give Me Strength, Roll Another Number (for the Road), Journey Through the Past, Harvest, Campaigner, Old Laughing Lady/Guilty Train, The Losing End (When You're on), Here We Are in the Years, The Needle and the Damage Done

** for Songs for Judy Intro (spoken word), Sugar Mountain