By the time Gordon Lightfoot released Summertime Dream in June of ’76, he had already earned the title of Canada’s greatest songwriter. A longtime chart-topper in folk, rock-country and country, Lightfoot helped shape the folk-pop sound of the ’60s and ’70s and defined a style of narrative songwriting that has endured for more than fifty years .
Although Summertime Dream was Lightfoot’s twelfth album, recorded at Eastern Sound Studios in Toronto and released by Reprise Records, it managed to reach No. 1 on the Canadian album charts and No. 12 on the US Billboard pop charts, bringing at the peak of his career the artist.
Having made his leap as a solo artist six years earlier with the release of “If You Could Read My Mind”, the 1970s were a particularly fruitful period for Lightfoot. In addition to securing multiple gold and platinum albums, he also had major chart success as a songwriter whose works were covered by all the greats of the era, from Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr. and The Kingston Trio to Jerry Lee Lewis, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Peter Paul & Mary.
At the time of its release, Summertime Dream yielded only one hit, “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald,” but the song, as well as Lightfoot himself, became something of a national treasure. Considered by Lightfoot himself to be “his best work”, the track is a haunting ballad, recounting the tragic sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior in November 1975 and centered around Lightfoot’s deep baritone voice, his folk twelve-string guitar and in his intense lyricism.
Inspired by a Newsweek article about the wreck, titled “The Hardest Month” (originally published November 24, 1975), “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” showcases both Lightfoot’s artistic power as a storyteller and his ability of presenting deeply moving and historically rooted long-form narratives to a mass commercial audience, something we first saw in 1967 in Detroit with the “Black Day of July” riots.
While Summertime Dream’s hit begins and ends with “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald,” the album features other notable tracks. “Race Among The Ruins”, which is a more traditional folk-pop song, was the second and final single from the album, however it was not as successful as its predecessor. “Never Too Close,” an acoustic tune interspersed with pedal steel guitar, talks about what it’s like to be young and foolish, without that necessarily being a bad thing. Then there’s the brooding “Spanish Moss,” yearning to right the wrongs of a past southern love.
Through this excellent album I select, what else, “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald”.
Tracklist
A1. Race Among The Ruins 3:21
A2. The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald 5:30
A3. I’m Not Supposed To Care 3:23
A4. I’d Do It Again 3:10
A5. Never Too Close 3:03
B1. Protocol 3:58
B2. The House You Live In 3:45
B3. Summertime Dream 2:27
B4. Spanish Moss 3:49
B5. Too Many Clues In This Room 4:57
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