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Gordon Lightfoot – Live At The Montreux Jazz Festival, 1976
February 6, 2024
Gordon Lightfoot
Live At The Montreux Jazz Festival, 1976
Floating World
A Wonderful Introduction To a Forgotten Master Craftsman Singer-Songwriter
Recorded live, at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976 this generous (73 minutes) 19 song release from Canadian-born, singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot is a wonderful indication of his worth as an artist.
Over the years his songs have been covered by, everyone from Bob Dylan, Paul Weller and Elvis Presley too!
This shouldn’t be a surprise as his descriptive songs are rich in beautiful lyrical content and have registered with the people everywhere.
Whether he was telling a story from his own experiences or just observations (sometimes finding him speak in delicately tender tones of relationships between two people) it all makes him a master of his craft, as Bob Dylan says of Lightfoot ‘I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like. Every time I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever’.
Lightfoot’s catalogue is such, that this 19-track recording includes such venerable affairs as the epic, Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, taken from a true event that saw the ship Edmund Fitzgerald sink on Lake Superior leaving no survivors among the crew of 29, and the original single reached no. 2 on the American pop charts.
Also included are fabulous renditions of If You Could Read My Mind, Sundown, (US pop no 1), Old Dan’s Records and Early Morning Rain which also figure among a host more gems.
Lightfoot was one of the finest songwriters to emerge on the scene in the 1970’s with the songwriter standing tall among an illustrious set of singer-songwriters from both sides of the American-Canadian border at that time.
A mighty live act, Lightfoot’s effortless vocal style is coupled with his understanding and experiences of life’s intricacies and nature placing him high in his given trade.
This was a purple patch for those of his native land, Canada as Lightfoot followed fellow Canadians Ian Tyson (of Ian & Sylvia Tyson) Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell (and The Band for that matter) South to the USA were they all achieved success and paved the way for many following generations.
Going with the earlier highlights there’s too many more here to go into in depth as they simply crowd the album; plus Lightfoot even veers off to perform a cover of the quirky Country ditty The Auctioneer (a 1950’s hit for Leroy Van Dyke; written with Buddy Black). Loaded in pedal steel guitar it’s a huge crowd pleaser. Plus, there’s mellow odes Beautiful , All The Lovely Ladies, Summertime Dream, Never Too Close (which is one of those songs that sound better with ever play; not least due to the wondrous pedal steel and lead guitar).
There’s also the bustling and not to be ignored I’d Do It Again too which shouldn’t be missed.
But, it’s his biggies, the poetic image spewing, Sundown, the flowing drama of If You Could Read My Mind, Early Morning Rain and Wreck Of Edmund Fitzgerald that the audience came to hear; and with a fine band in tow Lightfoot certainly doesn’t disappoint.
All the way through this concert Lightfoot holds the audience in the palm of his hands, transfixing the audience with the likes of Don Quixote and shaking them up with the likes of Sundown where the band’s lead electric, pedal steel guitar, rhythm and fine harmony vocal entries hit an all-time high.
If anyone is looking for a starting point to discover Gordon Lightfoot, they can do a lot worse than buy this release.
Courtesy our man from Havana Maurice Hope
Released October 2023
Gordon Lightfoot Live at Casino de Montreux, Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland, June 26, 1976.
This show features many of the songs from his then new album, Summertime Dream, from 1976. The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, a number one hit in Canada, was from this album. It is also the album which marked the peak of his commercial career.
-Setlist:
01. Race Among The Ruins
02. The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
03. Summertime Dream
04. I’d Do It Again
05. Never Too Close
06. The Last Time I Saw Her
07. If You Could Read My Mind
08. Don Quixote
09. High And Dry
10. Sundown
11. The Auctioneer
12. All The Lovely Ladies
13. Christian Island
14. Old Dan’s Records
15. I’m Not Supposed To Care
16. Canadian Railroad Trilogy
17. Beautiful
18. Early Morning Rain
19. Spanish Moss
-Lineup:
Gordon Lightfoot - guitar, vocals
Terry Clements - guitar
Pee Wee Charles - steel pedal guitar
Rick Haynes - bass
Barry Keane - drums
The Gordon Lightfoot sound was at its peak in the mid-’70s. That deep voice, the acoustic guitar now complimented with a full band and, of course, his clearly written folk songs. If Sundown had been a bit dark, he was back in the charts with The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, a classic folk tale with a splendid narrative about a freighter that sank in Lake Superior in 1975 with all hands on board. This show lined up all his recent hits, The Last Time I Saw Her, If You Could Read My Mind, Sundown and two older ones, Canadian Railroad Trilogy and Early Morning Rain. The lineup here is classic with Terry Clements (who died Feb 20, last year), Pee Wee Charles (who left in 1987), Rick Hayes and Barry Keane. It was also a turning point. After the peak of The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, Lightfoot would be plagued with drink problems and a painful marital breakup due in part to his infidelity which Sundown described. Lightfoot has never attempted to change his sound and has stayed a singer-songwriter, his success dependent on his songs’ popularity. He has never achieved the top rungs of the pop charts since then.
Montreux Jazz Festival 1976.
Milton Glaser produces the poster for a Festival celebrating its 10th edition with an extremely varied program. Performing at the Casino are Weather Report, The Dubliners, Sarah Vaughan, Ralph McTell, The Crusaders, Shakti with John McLaughlin, The Sun Ra Arkestra, Klaus Doldinger, Luther Allison, The Stan Getz Quartet, Gordon Lightfoot, Eric Burdon, Cecil Taylor as well as Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Clark Terry and Stuff. Monty Alexander and his trio with John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton produces a vinyl of their concert recording, destined to become a best-seller and genre classic. The Festival welcomes numerous artists for the first time, starting with Al Jarreau, George Duke and Leonard Cohen. Last but not least, Nina Simone's deeply moving concert will remain an anthology event in the history of the Festival; images of the emblematic concert are beamed around the world.
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. CC OOnt (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s. He is often referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter and is known internationally as a folk-rock legend.
Lightfoot's songs, including "For Lovin' Me", "Early Morning Rain", "Steel Rail Blues", "Ribbon of Darkness"—a number one hit on the U.S. country chart with Marty Robbins's cover in 1965—and "Black Day in July," about the 1967 Detroit riot, brought him wide recognition in the 1960s. Canadian chart success with his own recordings began in 1962 with the No. 3 hit "(Remember Me) I'm the One", followed by recognition and charting abroad in the 1970s. He topped the US Hot 100 or AC chart with the hits "If You Could Read My Mind" (1970), "Sundown" (1974); "Carefree Highway" (1974), "Rainy Day People" (1975), and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976), and had many other hits that appeared in the top 40.
Several of Lightfoot's albums achieved gold and multi-platinum status internationally. His songs have been recorded by renowned artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr., The Kingston Trio, Jerry Lee Lewis, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Herb Alpert, Harry Belafonte, Sarah McLachlan, Eric Clapton, John Mellencamp, Peter, Paul and Mary, Glen Campbell, The Grateful Dead, Nico, and Olivia Newton-John.
Robbie Robertson of the Band described Lightfoot as "a national treasure". Bob Dylan, also a Lightfoot fan, called him one of his favorite songwriters and, in an often-quoted tribute, Dylan observed that when he heard a Lightfoot song he wished "it would last forever".
(Wikipedia).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1ObQaLfgBM
Montreux 1976
