Customer Reviews

Gord's Gold 2

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Gordon Lightfoot, as any fan knows, likes to rerecord when he puts together a "greatest hits" album. For his first, Gord's Gold, he rerecorded all the songs from early in his career. Because the original recordings were on United Artists, before Lightfoot's emergence as a top recording artist in the US, the Gord's Gold version of the songs is often the first - even only - version that the listener has heard.

But it is different with the songs he rerecorded for Gord's Gold Volume II. Here, all the songs were heard first by most people in the original version. Lightfoot went back into to the studio to rerecord them, to create recordings with the feel (or sound, rather) of a live performance. He has undoubtedly achieved that here, but many fans still prefer the original studio recording over the new one, especially if the original was the one they fell in love with. Where it really hits home is in the recording of the big song here "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald".

Now, don't get me wrong. The Gord's Gold Volume II recording of Wreck is a masterpiece. In this version, Lightfoot is backed up by the band with which he still tours today: Terry Clements (lead guitar), Rick Haynes (bass), Barry Keane (drums) and Mike Heffernan (keyboards). The moving performance on Gord's Gold Volume II is very much like every passionate performance of Wreck that he and the band performed in 1998. Magnificent, and gripping live. But if you want to hear Wreck the way it sounded in 1976 on the radio, then you must have the original recording which luckily is also available today (on the Summertime Dream album). On that recording, Pee Wee Charles, playing steel guitar, was still in the Lightfoot band. The world has two outstanding recordings of an incredible song.

The rest of the songs on this album are also truly great songs. None of the others achieved the prominence that they deserved, for many of them are easily in the class of his earlier hits. Songs like Race Among The Ruins, Cherokee Bend, Shadows and Triangle are - in my opinion - among the very finest in his impressive catalog. There is one new song here, not available elsewhere (If It Should Please You) and there are also four other songs that Lightfoot did not rerecord. The most magnificent of these are It's Worth Believin' (from Old Dan's Records) and Ghosts Of Cape Horn (from Dream Street Rose), neither of which is available on any other CD at this time because four of his original albums have never been rereleased on CD.

The Gord's Gold Volume II album is a fine album with some of Lightfoot's best songs from the 70s and 80s. It is good listening for any Lightfoot fan, and contains quite a few songs that - because they are from albums not yet on CD - are not available elsewhere (this includes one of my favorites, Triangle). You might, however, want to buy both this one and, where available, the album with the original recording too!

This album is not one of my very favorite Lightfoot albums because, although he achieves a sound reminiscent of a live performance, it doesn't match the passion of a Lightfoot concert. Perhaps that is the weakness here. He could reproduce the sound of a live performance in a studio, but not the inspiration he draws from his audience. I guess we'll all just have to go see him in concert to get both.

Gord's Gold 2 suffers in reputation because a buyer only finds out after opening the package that it's mostly materials re-recorded live in the studio. The big disappointment to ears expecting the original version of "Edmund Fitzgerald," is that the re-done version loses the eerie power of the reverb-enhanced studio track. Another problem is that Gord's voice, frankly, aged poorly between the making of the originals and these newer versions. That said, GG2 includes some fine songs. The opening track, "If It Should Please You," is a concert opener available nowhere else. And the final one is from an LP not yet released on CD. Because the latter, as well as the last four or five tracks on GG2, are un-retouched from the initial album versions, I suspect that this project suffered from confusion or a lack of focus. Perhaps Gord and friends had second thoughts about the "redo the originals" approach; perhaps the project began as a "Gord and band live in the studio" effort, and got waylaid into something the record company could label as a followup to one of the most successful anthologies ever. The result is that GG2 is mis-named and poorly assembled. It is neither the disaster some call it, nor is it one of his best. Most of GG2 is a footnote for Gord fans starved for a live (albeit in the studio) document of a maturing Gord and Band, playing competently and enjoyably. A real one-disc followup to Gord's Gold I has yet to be issued.

Some of the tracks aren't bad from Gordon Lightfoot's in studio recordings but the rest sounds like live concert recordings on this Gord's Gold Volume 2 because "The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald" song is performed differently and does not suit my taste at all in retrospective so take my advice just get Gord's Gold Volume 1 and Summertime Dream their way better albums than this one right here to tell you the truth folks!

Recorded live on the floor, this is a fine album from Lightfoot and the long-time members of the Lightfoot band. Yes, the tracks do sound different than the studio versions fans have come to love over the years. But, if you enjoy the original version of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald that much, why not buy Summertime Dream? It's one of the best albums Lightfoot has produced in his career. Since Gord has but one live album to his credit, Sunday Concert from more than 30 years ago, I like to think of Volume II as my opportunity to listen to Gord as if he's performing on stage. Unfortunately, there's no tracks from a few of his latter albums including Salute ('Whispers of the North' is a contender) and East of Midnight ('I'll Tag Along' and the title track are both strong cuts). 'If it Should Please You' is a nice treat, but another one or two new tracks wouldn't have hurt. Regardless, here's a chance to hear some of Gord's songs in a different way. Check it out.

As an avid Lightfoot fan, I didn't need much convincing to buy this CD. I forgive the producers what I consider to be merely rank commercialism after the success of Gord'd Gold #1. After all, the original Gord's Gold was released in 1975. If it had been their intention to include album cuts from Dream Street Rose, Shadows, Old Dan's Records, and Salute, why not just make a compilation of the newer material? As it is, Gord and Co. recorded 1 new track (If It Should Please You), and rerecoded 13 others. The new recordings are well-done, but I was slightly less impressed with Gord's 12-string guitar proficiency. To my ears it sounded as though he took shortcuts with some chords, making them easier to play, but somehow less complex and satisfying to the hearing (Any of you guitarists ever tried to duplicate his original chord fingerings? Wow.). As for If It Should Please You, for me this is a favorite, Edmund Fitzgerald is disonant, and It's Worth Believin' a lovely send-off. An album valuable to anyone who loves Gordon Lightfoot's music, regardless of when he plays it.

Funny thing about fandom. Even among casual fans, there are all kinds of gradations. I would admit to being only a casual fan of Gordon Lightfoot, but that's not to say that given world enough and time, I wouldn't be more of one. I'm certainly not like the (probably apocryphal) joker who once yelled out at a concert, "Play the Wreck of the Ella Fitzgerald!" Not quite that bad.

In fact, in my teens I had several of Gordo's earliest records (the ones on United Artists) and loved them. But then, in college I started hanging out with some acoustic musicians who were hard core Lightfoot FREAKS. And you know how it is, since you know you're going to get to hear your friends copies, you spend your own hard earned cash on something else. And it was true, to a degree. I certainly got to hear all of Lightfoot's early 70s Reprise albums at friends' places.

But did I really absorb them? I guess not. When I recently picked up on a used copy of GORD'S GOLD II--one with the inserts missing--I realized there were a large number of these "golden oldies" that I didn't know after all (must have come out after we graduated or something). And many seemingly obvious choices for inclusion (title tracks from his many albums, for instance) did not make the cut. And it probably does not speak well for me that it wasn't even clear to me until I started to peruse the reviews included on this Amazon, that these were, for the most part, RE-recordings of tracks from earlier albums. Hmmm, I THOUGHT there was something different.

And being only a casual fan, I scarcely realized the level of controversy I was entering into by purchasing this CD and actually liking it. I vaguely recall reading about Lightfoot's decision to do "live in the studio" re-recordings of these selected "gold standard" tracks. Seems like a valid artistic choice to me, but then, I try never to second guess any artist's decisions. Judging from some of the other reviews, I may be in a distinct minority.

I like the warm live sound of this recording--and I don't miss the audience response particularly either. Lightfoot is one performer I regret never having seen. This record gives me a taste of what I have been missing all these years. Without any distraction. Close your eyes and you almost have your litte personal house concert going on. And I can't say I miss the strings from some of those classic 70s albums exactly. I never objected to them, but the stripped down sound of most of the tracks here is preferable to me.

But of course, many people bought this album thinking they were getting something else, and I suppose they have every right to vent their spleen. Hopefully though, they'll satisfy their craving for collections of the original studio versions from among the several now available. But if they give GOLD II a second, third or umpteenth chance, they may find its laconically seductive charm creeping up on them.

It would be pointless to deny that Gordo's voice was already showing some wear by the mid-80s when this was recorded. But those who describe his singing as "horrible" here are surely exaggerating. A pro like Lightfoot doesn't just lose it totally. There's a frayed quality to some of the vocals, no question, but his expert phrasing more than makes up for that. As a performing artist he's got what TV newscasters everywhere would give their eyeteeth to have: gravitas.

Which is not to say he lacks humor or warmth. It's all there in spades. And his rapport with the band is remarkable. This is one tight ensemble. You don't get that quality with your typical studio production job. Now that it's been in release for close to 20 years--and now that other compilation packages are also available--it's time to drop the controversy re: this record. Just listen to it for what it is. And enjoy.

In Gord's Gold 1 you get to hear some of his EMI hits re-recorded using his matured lush baritone voice with the emotive vibrato that was his trademark of the 70's and early 80's. Unfortunately, in or around 1984 something happened to Gord's beautiful voice. His voice became weak and thin sounding, and later nasally sounding and then quite elderly in quality. In fact, I think of him as Grandpa Lightfoot because that is what he sounds like from the albums "Waiting for You" and on. None of the lush baritone of the time period previously mentioned is left.
Now I haven't mentioned Gord's Gold 2 because I wanted to give you, the reader, a little perspective of what I think of Gord's current voice. Gord's Gold 2 except for a couple of songs that were brought over from "Old Dan's Records" and "Dreamstreet Rose" are re-recordings of some of his masterpieces in that dreadfully thin and weak voice that do nothing but destroy the songs. Stay away from this failed project and get the originals as they are all available now on CD and sound as they are supposed to sound!

I, like most other reviewers here have Greatest hits Volume 1 and looked forward to volume 2. I listened to it once and put it aside. I didn't realize at the time that most of the songs had been rerecorded. The new recordings are flat and Gordon's voice sounds strained and weak.

Although many highlights of his 80's albums are in their original versions and has a great song called "If It Should Please You" available nowhere else, everything else, including "Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald" is all re-recorded and the remakes are not good at that. You are better off getting the "Songbook" boxed set or the original albums for what you would be buying this for. If It weren't for the highlights of the 80's albums and the new track, this would rate 1 star, but since the 1980's original recordings are well chosen and "If It Should Please You" is a decent song, I give it 2 stars.

Some thoughts on this album. One previous reviewer stated that Gord's voice is not as good as it was, in the 1970's. When Sundown was recorded in 1973-74, he was 35. I do not know of anybody, whose voice is the same, say at 55. His voice has matured. It is true that his problems with the bottle, did nothing to help his voice,but I enjoy his recordings post-1984. This particular album is noteworthy for the inclusion of "If It Should Please You". The others are more like in concert. These songs are well done, but I still prefer the original recordings.