Gordon Lightfoot - Complete Greatest Hits

Description

The most comprehensive single-CD collection by this treasured troubadour. These 1965-1987 United Artists, Reprise and Warner Bros. tracks include his Top 10 hits Sundown; If You Could Read My Mind; The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald; Carefree Highway , and 14 more!Though he rose from the ranks of journeyman 60s folksinger to become a potent and consistent 70s hit maker, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot s stock in trade was as much hard-eyed, dispassionate observation as romance or poetic whimsy. Perhaps that s why his songs have been covered by everyone from Elvis (this set s "Early Morning Rain") to Dylan. If there s such a thing as an alpha-male folkie, Lightfoot certainly fits the bill. Spanning the tongue-in-cheek chauvinism of 1965 s "For Lovin Me" and the cheatin ways of "Sundown" to more introspective fare like "If You Could Read My Mind" and "Beautiful," this 20-track collection presents a concise primer on Lightfoot s career and craft. After his career peaked with one of the most unlikely top five hits ever, the gloom-laden 1976 narrative "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," Lightfoot s production tailed off sharply, though this anthology s "Stay Loose" ( 86) and "Restless" ( 93) are testament to his enduring skills as a songwriter and performer. --Jerry McCulley