Customer Reviews

Salute

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Maybe there are one or two weak numbers here, but I've always felt there were several indispensable classics on this album. "Tatoo" especially. Perhaps some folks don't like the glitzy pop/rock production given to many of the tunes. Personally, I like well-produced, multilayered pop music like Al Stewart's hit records, and this Lightfoot record, along with Gord's East of Midnight album that followed it, certainly fit in that mold. Hopefully the style of the music will not prejudice people and deter them from experiencing the poetry, melody and skillful delivery that Gordon creates and serves up on Salute. They say Gordon has had drinking problems. Endless Wire sounded to me like he was on the sauce and his pitch seemed always just a little off on that record. (Is it just me?) None of that here. Gordon sounds alert, engaged, and in top singing form.

I especially love the sound of this record too. The albums recorded at Eastern Sound in Toronto seem to have an inherent clarity to them. (Bruce Cockburn made a couple of excellent sounding records there as well: Further Adventures Of and Joy Will Find a Way.) The old Salute LP record was mastered by Doug Sax at the Mastering Lab which brought out the maximum detail and liquidity that analog is capable of. I have a good vinyl LP copy, so I haven't exactly been pining away for a CD release, but it is very nice to have this available in a remastered edition. I trust Rhino -- I've never heard a bad Rhino remastering.

It sounds to me as if a great deal of care was taken in the writing, recording, and producing of this album. What can I say? I put this forward as an example of high quality music-making.

As a non-folkie, what is it that I like so much about Gordon Lightfoot? - the style of doomed romance underpined with obvious masculinity? (seasoned with an occasional dogged moment of hope?), - the wistful appreciation of nature? - or that smooth, pure, and steady voice (a friend describes on first hearing as "so full of sorrow")? Since the switch to CD's from vinyl eleven years ago, I have waited and watched for this personal favourite to be released and I am grateful to those who have finally put this on the shelves. Impossible to be objective, of course, once an album has settled so deeply into your subconscious as Salute has since it's summer release back in 1983. But for me this is an astonishingly under-rated collection from the great Canadian's life of music (witness the disappointing if tantalising inclusion of only three tracks on the Songbook box set, and even then they missed the best!). From the gritted-teeth exuberance of 'Salute' (- a lot more livin' to do indeed, still the case) to an all-time classic lost-love song - 'Tattoo' - what a gem. "You know time doesn't wait for nobody to find what they're after, it just keeps on rolling on down the deep canyons and through the green meadows into the broad ocean"... and still it doesn't wait.

Perhaps the cause of this album's obscurity is the electronic characteristics of the production, the sheen of synthesisers and gliding electric guitar solos weaving all over the place, more of a 'rock-lite' than a folk sound, but never does Lightfoot compromise either his perfectionism or his melody. A no-brainer for Lightfoot fans, and maybe a great place to start if you're coming from rock and thinking of checking out more mellow sounds. The waiting is over! Salute!!

I'd just gotten back into Gordon Lightfoot's music over the winter & spring of 2002/3, and was looking to update my old LP collection with CD replacements for some old favorites, and to add some newer releases I'd missed. I'd been a Lightfoot fan for a long time, but had never heard the album Salute until this year. What a great collection of songs! More electric than most of his other work, but very much the same superb sense of melody (especially on Romance and my favorite - Biscuit City).

This album has rapidly become my favorite of his, and I never would have expected that after the great work on Don Quixote and Sundown. Nobody has the melodic songwriting talent of Lightfoot in my opinion.

Lightfoot's 1982 album "Shadows" wistfully and somberly chronicled Lightfoot's divorce. 1983's "Salute" is up-tempo, optimistic, full of energy and the perfect compliment to "Shadows." On "Salute" Lightfoot is a new man. Just run down the list of song titles on "Salute" and you'll see how Lightfoot is feeling after some time has passed following break-up and loss: "Salute (You've Got A Lot More Livin' To Do)," "Gotta Get Away," "Whispers Of The North," "Someone To Believe In," "Romance" (with the lyric "You say that you're through with romance, why take a chance, on anyone?"), "Without You," and "Broken Dreams." Three others, "Knotty Pine," "Biscuit City" and "Tattoo" also reinforce Lightfoot's theme of "A Lot More Livin' To Do." This is probably the most up-tempo and electric of Lightfoot's albums and it feels good to hear that he feels good. Lightfoot fans expecting the 1970's folkie troubadour may be startled by "Salute," but these fans should listen first to "Shadows" then to "Salute" back-to-back to really appreciate the depth of Lightfoot's creativity and his mature artistic growth. "Salute" is essential to the Lightfoot collection.

It has been out of print for years and I have combed used record and tapes galore trying to find it to replace my worn out cassette. Thank you Rhino for blessing the world once again with this troubadour's (IMO) best work ever. His creative energy was at its highest peak. I really can't add much to the other reviews here but to say that I wish he would have stayed with this style for a while. Maybe because it did not have a "hit" or didn't sell well at the time he thought his fans didn't like it. How sad. This album was just a victim of the times...pop radio all but ignored his music by then...that year belonged to U2..Dire Straights...etc.

I had "Salute" on vinyl, then got rid of the turntable! Now I have the CD and it is like a long lost friend coming round for a drink. It's the best Lightfoot album since "Don Quixote", full of great songs, in the true, inimitable Lightfoot style. Salute (the title track) starts the album off in fine style before Gord turns slightly funky with Gotta Get Away. Other great tracks include Someone To Believe In, Romance, Biscuit City and Tattoo (nice synth) - and the album finishes as it starts with a spreme uptempo in Broken Dreams. The musicians back the great man up brilliantly, to make a fine, full sound.

I now have all Gordon Lightfoot studio albums, so I'm a happy man. He is, arguably, the greatest male Canadian songwriter (with Leonard Cohen) and deserves all the praise he gets. Long may he continue.

This was a difficult review (opinion) to put on record, as I very much wanted to give this collection a better rating. I will first state that Gordon Lightfoot is among my three all time favorite musical entities. Having said that, I believe this collection from 1983 and the the one that followed it in 1986, entitled "East of Midnight" were generally an artistic dry spell for Gordon. By comparison, both Bob Dylan and John Lennon went through comparable periods that lasted for years. Gordon came out of this diminished period of creativity in 1993 when he calmly roared back with the "Waiting for You" album.

I'll first state the positive - "Tattoo" is a excellent melody and set of lyrics that makes me wish I'd written something like it. Gordon is astonishingly good at combining regret and wistfulness with beauty, lessons learned and rays of hope. The melody is a haunting one that I think most Lightfoot fans and other casual listeners will enjoy.

The other positives - "Whispers of the North" is reminiscent in feel of an earlier Gordon masterpiece "Talking in your Sleep." And "Knotty Pine" combines a traditional folk feel with a smooth electronic mood nicely. Both Knotty Pine and Whispers of the North are enjoyable but they are also ephemeral, i.e. they do not "stay with you and settle in" like the songs on his more inspired albums (of which there are a dozen plus).

Although I am open to change (and as stated - I believe that some of this collection works), I prefer the sometimes simple - sometimes more involved grace of his earlier (and later) recordings. By contast, "Salute" seems over-orchestrated with an unfortunate stock 80s sound that verges on upbeat easy listening. Another reviewer mentioned a production link to "St. Elmo's Fire" - and I unfortunately must second that I also can hear that. Most of the lyrics in this collection are diminished, and the vocals are undermined by the instrumental onslaught. If you read the lyrics for Salute by comparison to most of his other works it is clearly not up to his customary level of inspired poetry.

All this said - it's still Gordon. And since I know that in the future, from 1993 through his latest "Harmony" in 2004) he would write such masterpieces as "Restless, Waiting for You, Ringneck Loon, River of Light, Inspiration Lady" and others - I can make it through some of the far less inspiring selections on Salute.

As for the two stars - it's for the songs "Tattoo" (excellent) and "Whispers of the North" and "Knotty Pine" (an easygoing good). I have given Gordon five stars in my other reviews. In my opinion, he is certainly a genius - but went through a tough spell through the 80s after 1982's excellent "Shadows."

I own & enjoy most of Mr. Lightfoot's studio albums from the Reprise era onward, and this album is no exception. I had it on vinyl, and was delighted that Rhino released it on CD. I think four stars is just too high, so I gave it three, but 3.5 would be about right.

On the plus side, there are two GREAT songs here -- Romance, which received a good bit of Toronto airplay, and the breathtaking Tattoo, which did not. For me, the album was worth purchasing for these two songs alone. The title track, Gotta Get Away, Whispers and Knotty Pine are also good or better.

I can do without the remaining four songs. Three strike me as uncharacteristically shallow & rock-oriented; Biscuit City I just find sappy. And I don't think that the slick 80's production has aged as well as his 1970's material.

Your mileage may vary, but if you're a Lightfoot fan, there's more than enough to enjoy here. If you're not a fan, Gord's Gold, If You Could Read My Mind (née Sit Down Young Stranger) and Summertime Dream should probably come first.

Of the last 4 of the original lightfoot albums to be released
on c.d. This is my favorite. It has everything. Ballads, love
songs, uptempo songs. A song about nature. Thanks for finally
releasing all of his albums onto c.d. And this one in particular.
Without you maybe I'd lose my mind.

I have been wanting to buy the Salute Album on CD for a few years . I finally bought
the album to replace my creaky old cassette .This is one the only album of
Gordon Lightfoot not available as MP 3s . Nonetheless, I'd rather have the whole
album , but as MP 3s I could have bought them one or two at time until
I had the whole album . Anyway I am glad I finally bought the Album.