Customer Reviews

Summertime Dream

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album is Gordon Lightfoot's biggest commerical success in America, due in no small measure to "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald". This piece is Lightfoot's narrative of the November 10, 1975 loss of the Fitzgerald in Lake Superior, and it is haunting, eerie, and quite beautiful. This song actually reached number 2 on the US singles chart in late 1976, which is unbelievable because the track is over 6 minutes long.

Of course, there are other powerful moments. "I'm Not Supposed To Care" is as sad a ballad as you'll hear, and drips with an honesty and resignation that'll break your heart. "Prodocol" is another haunting, minor-key ballad. Lightfoot also shows he can kick it out a bit when compelled, as "I'd Do It Again" aptly displays. The lighter stuff, such as "The House You Live In" and the title track, provide relief against the more somber pieces.

This album is indeed a must-have. "Fitzgerald" does tend to dwarf the rest of the songs, but Lightfoot's other songs exhibit an emotional quality that is rarely heard today.

This is one of Lightfoot's best and most popular albums, produced when he was at the height of his incredible popularity in the mid 1970s. For a while Lightfoot, like his fellow troubadours James Taylor, John Denver, and Van Morrison, could seemingly do nothing wrong. In fact, over a fifteen period, Gordon Lightfoot produced so many superior albums populated by such uniformly outstanding songs that we've become inured to the fact that he is such a singular, talented and singular talent. Every single song on this album is extremely well written, sung and arranged, from the opening "Race Among The Ruins" into the fantastically popular smash hit "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" soft, wry, and thoughtful "I'm Not Supposed To Care" on into the balance of the album, which is consistently sweet, well-sung and artfully arranged. My personal favorites here are "The House You Live In, a captivating, poetically versed, and thoughtfully complex song quite typical of how opinionated and philosophically provocative Lightfoot could sometimes be, "Never Too Close", a satiric recollection of loves won and lost, and "Spanish Moss", a haunting and beautifully sung melody along the lines of much of his earlier folk tunes. Gordon Lightfoot is an incredibly talented singer/songwriter who is in the process of leaving us dozens of terrific albums for our continuing entertainment and edification. This is certainly one of the best of them. Enjoy!

Contrary to why many others have bought "Summertime Dream", I bought the album despite the presence of "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Its not that I dislike the song, its just fine. If ever a song was overplayed, WOTEF has to be contender for the crown. This album just happens to be Lightfoot's best since "Don Quixote". His talent not only lies in his rich voice, his evocative guitar and his tremendous storytelling ability but also in his credibility as a writer. When Lightfoot sings, you can imagine that yes, he does feel that way or yes, he has been to that place and experienced those things. Those qualities tell the world that he is more than just another hack cranking out tunes even if that was all that he is. On "Summertime Dream", those talents are on display again. Just listen to the musicianship and wordsmithing in such songs as "Race Among the Ruins", "Protocol", "The House You Live In", and on the title cut. Gordon Lightfoot is still making fine music, but in my estimation this is the last album that really stands out and as such is worthy of a place in your collection.

I used to think I hated folk music - until I discovered Gordon Lightfoot. He might not be as well known as Bob Dylan but he can sing a lot better than Dylan (especially with no nasal voice - THANK GOD). On "Summertime Dream" Gordon proves again that he has the goods as a singer/songwriter.

To begin with, we have the monster that is "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". The steel guitar here (played by Pee Wee somebody or another - don't you just love the names?) is great listening in itself, as is the rest of the instrumentation - it really evokes a mood of desolation everytime I here it. Gordon's lyrics here (delivered in his customary understated style) are brilliant. From "the legennd lives on from the Chippewa on doown/of the big lake they called Gitcheegumee" it is clear that this won't just be another song - it will be an experience. The rest of the epic doesn't disappoint, as Lightfoot tels the true story of the sinking of an ore transport vessel in Lake Superior.

The rest of the album is of equal standard to that song. "Too Many Clues In This Room" is a very slow-burning song, so slow in fact that I didn't much like it until the 5th listen - now it's a real favourite. The title track and "The House You Live In" are also great examples of Lightfoot's work.

My favourite song here would have to be "Race Among The Ruins". In typically cryptic style, Lightfoot seems to be singing about love gone wrong (well, he does to me): "When you wake up to the promise of your dream world coming true/with one less friend to call on, was it someone that I knew?/Away we'll go sailing in a race among the ruins/If you plan to face tomorrow, do it soon." This song really struck a chord with me the first time I heard it because I was trying to express the same sentiments but couldn't find the words to do so.

In fact, all the songs here feature Lightfoot's writing at its best. From love-songs, to political messages, from epics to moral songs, it's impossible to pick a duff track here - and that really should be the way that it works all the time.

In short, another classic offering from a criminally under-rated singer/songwriter that just has to be heard and treasured.

A few months ago, my sophomore Honors English teacher played "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" for my classmates and I, and instructed us to analyze the song. All the while as I was listening to it, I couldn't help but shake the feeling that I'd heard the song somewhere before. However, I completed the assignment and put Gordon Lightfoot out of my mind. Just recently I went to a music/bookstore in pursuit of Gordon Lightfoot CDs, hoping to find "The Wreck..." on an album. To my surprise, there were quite a few Gordon Lightfoot albums, and it took me a while until I found the one I was looking for. Now although I bought the album for "The Wreck...," I have since listeded to other tracks, and find that I enjoy them all. I am a fifteen year old high school student from California, and find Gordon Lightfoot to be an incredible musician. I know I will never tire of his voice, and in twenty or thirty years, when the albums of Christina Aguilera and NSync have since been shoved into a basement somewhere, Gordon Lightfoot will still have a place on my CD rack.

I purchased this CD to have one of my favorite songs "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" available to listen to on que. I learned that most of the songs on this CD qualify under the "need to listen to on que" status. There's a different mood to every song. However, what is common to these songs is that they can run through your head without notice. This is a CD that will grow on you...case in point...I had this CD not more than one month and I played it 4 times through on a trip from Miami to Key West and back. If you like "The Wreck of the Edmind Fitzgerald", do yourself a big favor and buy this CD.

This is one of Gordon Lightfoot's most enduring albums. In an era of heavily produced pop albums, Lightfoot jettisoned the strings and production touches of his previous release (Cold on the Shoulder) and went with a stripped-down sound. Apart from a little dash of moog synthesizer, what you hear are basically Lightfoot and his superb band, with minimal overdubbing. The albums features Terry Clements on lead guitar, Rick Haynes on bass, Pee Wee Charles on pedal steel, and Barry Keane on drums and percussion (Keane's addition to the group marked the first time Lightfoot utilized a drummer as part of his working band). Lightfoot is heard--as per usual--on 6 and 12-string guitars, and session ace Jim Gordon (a veteran of the Sundown and Cold on the Shoulder recordings) plays drums on "The House You Live In." The album contains what is--arguably--the song which is the most closely identified with Lightfoot: "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." After all these years, it remains a remarkable piece of work and a terrific recording. If you thought a pedal steel guitar could only be used with country music, listen to the innovative phrasings Pee Wee Charles employs on this track. But "The Wreck..." isn't the only gem on this album. "Race Among the Ruins," is a brilliant piece of songwriting. "The House You Live In" is another quintessentially Lightfoot song--an impossibly infectious melody coupled with his insightful lyricism. "I'm Not Supposed to Care" and "Spanish Moss" are two of the loveliest ballads he's written, and the title track remains one of his most purely fun tunes. There is also the social commentary of "Protocol," and the ethereally ominous "Too Many Clues in This Room." Additionally, while it's rarely mentioned, there is also a movingly beautiful and lyrical poem in the CD booklet entitled "Summertime Dream" which, believe me, is well worth reading.

All in all, Summertime Dream showcases one of the 20th century's great songwriters at the top of his game.

This Gordon Lightfoot album from 1976 is one of his best albums by far. Not only does it include the major hit "Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald" in its original form (his final top 10 hit) but there are a lot of songs on here that should have been hits. Some of them include the title song, I'm Not Supposed To Care, The House You Live In (which BTW is the B Side to "Wreck") and Race Among The Ruins. If you are new to Lightfoot's music and/or a longtime fan who has worn out the vinyl, this is a must pick up for 10 classic Lightfoot songs as he is one of the most influential singer/songwriters in popular music and the music flows from one great song to another.

Some of my earliest memories included background music of Gordon Lightfoot, whose songs rarely missed AM radio in the mid- to late seventies. As a youngster I always thought his ditties were listenable, but too sad.
Having recently rediscovered Gordon Lightfoot, I now lament that his category of 70's music (which could also include Cat Stevens, Carly Simon, James Taylor and Paul Simon) does not fit so neatly into most current radio formats. It doesn't hit as hard as "classic rock" and certainly is not disco, so most commercial radio does not find time for it. A true shame, too, because Lightfoot's combination of rich lyrics and and smooth, weathered vocals combine for music free of gimmicks and filler. Although the 70's was a pinnacle for musical excesses, Lightfoot shunned the tired refrains and lame instrumental solos. Hence each song feels tight and all of a piece.
Although Race Among the Ruins is my personal favorite, there is not a weak track on the album, and very few in Lightfoot's body of work.

This album is vintage Lightfoot, and the bard's lyrics, always honest and searching (and sometimes inscrutable and open to multiple interpretations) shine here. This is the album on which The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald appeared, and one sees now how the world of popular music has changed - there is no way a literate, nearly six-minute song about comparatively minor tragedy in the maritime history could appear at the top of the charts again. The power of this tale lies in the slow build up to the wreck and the repetitive musical phrasing, like the constant battering of the good ship by the gale of November 1975, and Lightfoot's easy description of the Great Lakes geography. Other great tunes include the wistful Protocol (about the disappearance of personal heroism and sacrifice and its replacement by an anonymous technological warrior-elite), the advice-laden The House that You Live In, and the Arcadian ditty Summertime Dream. You could take every song here and strip away the music, and then read the lyrics as a poem - they are great. In fact, you can do that with most of Lightfoot's songs. One wonders: where did Gord get his lyrics? He covers so much in his song - history, love, death, ruin, redemption, etc. As a child, did he read a lot? He seems unnaturally wise. I bought this album when it came out in the 1970s, listened to it intensely on a record player, and then it, along with so many other records, were sold when my folks sold their home in the 1990s. I recently bought it as a CD and it sounds even better than ever; as one gets older, Gord's lyrics get richer. Unfortunately, as I am writing this, the bard himself is in bad health, though recovering, prompting one to wonder, as did he in The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?