As 1968 got here to an finish, Gordon Lightfoot would rejoice his thirtieth birthday with an incredible sense of satisfaction. His busy 12 months, and an intense interval of artistic and business progress, culminated in a fourth studio album, Again Right here On Earth, that might show to be his final studio set for United Artists. The identify of the gifted singer-songwriter was now on lips far past simply his native Canada.
One other album meant one other change of producer, as Lightfoot, once more recording in Nashville, now labored with New Yorker Elliot Mazer. Like John Simon, who oversaw Did She Point out My Identify?, launched firstly of the 12 months, Mazer would rely The Band amongst his credit, in addition to Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, and Neil Younger. As earlier, the brand new set included songs that the artist would revisit when his profile was even greater, notably the unhappy and stylish “The Circle Is Small,” which he revived for Countless Wire nearly a decade later.
Maybe the following best-known track on Again Right here On Earth, additionally renewed on Gord’s Gold, was “Bitter Green,” one other usually literate reflection on love derailed. Expert as ever at seizing inspiration, Lightfoot wrote it at the back of a cab touring from Heathrow Airport into London. “My wife adopted that as her song after our divorce,” he mirrored. “I went over to London to write the album, to jog my mind into a writing space.” The track topped RPM’s Canadian content material chart and had Money Field observing its pop radio potential within the US and describing it as a “bittersweet tale of a ‘lost’ girl.”
The LP had a extra easy, acoustic really feel, with help solely from guitarist Crimson Shea and bassist John Stockfish, however given additional depth by Lightfoot’s personal accompaniment on each six and 12-string guitars. One other observe, the haunting “Affair On 8th Avenue,” drew on his frequent visits to the US, the place he was now enjoying golf equipment such because the Bitter Finish in New York and the Cellar Door in Washington.
“Cold Hands From New York” was one other diary entry by a stranger in Manhattan. “I came down through Albany to New York to find what I’d been missin’,” he wrote, in a travelog with references to such landmarks because the Lincoln Tunnel and Central Park. “I came down to live alone in New York, the city of the living/There were fortunes at my feet but most of men were taking, none were giving, or forgiving.”
No fewer than eight of the LP’s 11 tracks attracted covers, together with one the next 12 months by Waylon Jennings, who gave it a sexy, slowed down nation ballad therapy with vocal accompaniment from the Kimberleys. One other lower from Again Right here On Earth, “Gypsy,” gained a 1974 rendition by Petula Clark.
Learn extra about Gordon Lightfoot’s early albums right here.
Lightfoot’s touring in help of the album included a present at UCLA’s Royce Corridor in Los Angeles, the place Robert Hilburn of the L.A. Instances wrote: “He weaves folk, country and mainstream pop influences into a distinctly contemporary style of his own. His lyrics, melodies and delivery share a common honesty and intensity.” Time journal afforded Lightfoot prestigious protection because the file emerged, and early in 1969, his preeminence was underlined as he received RPM’s Finest People Singer title, conserving Joni Mitchell in second place and Leonard Cohen in third.
Purchase or stream Gordon Lightfoot’s Again Right here On Earth on Apple Music or Spotify.
