Gary J -
I agree with you on the strength of "Shadows," but the solution is not to dump the early material from Songbook. The solution is to release Shadows on CD (right after releasing ODR, if only because we've been waiting longer for that one).
I also disagree strongly that the "newer" unreleased songs on Songbook are better than the older material. Although I'm not fond of the style of "(Remember Me) I'm the One" or "It's Too Late, He Wins" (as a technical point, they are not "previously unreleased" but they might as well have been), I'm happy to have that material to give perspective on the importance on Gord's artistic change of direction.
I guess it's also obvious that I love "2Much2Lose" but not that song alone. "You'll still be needing me" is one of the prettiest melodies he has ever written and a lyric like "Let the tide roll out, let the tide roll in, It's time to sink or swim" in the context of the end of a relationship packs a wallop. "Heaven Don't Deserve Me" is another in the best tradition of his "loveable rogue" songs as well as an interesting companion piece to "In My Fashion." "A Message to the Wind", "Mama Said" and "Station Master" are also important additions to his material from the early era.
What I like most about Songbook is that with each disk the listener can pick an era of Gord's music and get a nice selection of songs from that era. Not a complete selection, perhaps not my ideal selection (or yours or any particular fan's) but a good selection of great work.
This is particularly helpful to fans like me who still play the earlier UA and Warner albums on vinyl and have not upgraded the complete available collection to CD. Songbook makes the breadth of Gord portable, and in a production format superior to either Gord'sGold collection, IMHO.
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"And the laughter came too easy for life to pass me by." - SDYS
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