Gordon Lightfoot - Facts & Music Pt. III Quiz

Answer: All of these

Gordon has recorded several tunes that reflect the personal attachment he feels for the open water and those who made their livings from it. For many years, he would take a break from songwriting and 'disappear' for several days. During that time he was all alone paddling his canoe in the isolated lakes and rivers of Northern Ontario, while enjoying the solitude of Canada's beautiful nature. "High and Dry" was released in 1974 off his album "Sundown", while "Sea of Tranquility" and "Ghosts of Cape Horn" both came from his 1980 record, "Dream Street Rose".

Answer: Gord's Gold

This compilation contains 23 of Gord's best songs up to that point. There were many, many more hit songs to come later and this was his first 'greatest hits' effort, but it certainly wasn't going to be his last. "Gord's Gold" contains eleven songs (two medleys) from his years with United Artists and twelve songs from the first six albums he recorded with Warner Brothers/Reprise.

It also contains three of his four biggest commercial hits up to 1975, those being "Sundown", "Carefree Highway", and "If You Could Read My Mind".

Answer: If You Could Read My Mind

Although Gord had quickly become a popular singer/songwriter with an ever increasing fan base via his first five albums, "Sit Down Young Stranger" was considered his breakthrough album even before the title was changed. "If You Could Read My Mind" reached a lofty number five on the U.S. Billboard record charts. Gord later revealed that this was a very personal song about the breakup of his first marriage. It's one of his most covered songs, having been performed by the likes of Barbara Streisand, Kenny Rogers, Olivia Newton-John, and Johnny Cash. Decades after its release, it has remained a standard at all his concerts.

Source: songfacts.com

Answer: Don Quixote

"Don Quixote" (widely recognised as "The Man of La Mancha") is the ballad of an adventurous and romantic character who dreams of saving the poor and destitute from the world around him. "The Ingenious Hidalgo 'Don Quixote' of La Mancha" was written by Miguel de Cervantes in two volumes, one in 1605 and one in 1615. Gord wrote the song because of his love for the book.

The 1972 record of the same name went platinum in Canada (sales of 100,000 or more), and despite its critically acclaimed "acoustic perfection", reached only position number 42 on the U.S. Billboard charts.

Answer: Old Dan's Records

"Old Dan's Records" only reached #95 on the Billboard charts, but there aren't many Canadian artists who can say they had two albums make Billboard's Top 100 in the same year ("Don Quixote" was the other and it reached #42). The title song tells a story of family and friends gathering together for a good old-fashioned country-style hoedown with the music being supplied by "Old Dan's" 78rpm record collection. Fans and critics of Lightfoot's music admitted that the album changed their preconceptions, in a positive way, that Gord was only a single genre artist.

Answer: The Pony Man

"The Pony Man" was another song from Gord's hugely successful album "Sit Down Young Stranger" ("If You Could Read My Mind"). It's a dreamy song about a fellow who brings a string of ponies to town for the children to gallop down the roads, fly across the fields, and "go sailing off into the midnight sky".

It's a melodic ballad that ventures into the fantastical world of childhood, where treasure-seeking, laughter, and rivers of soda take the children inside the moon to "a land of magic that the grownups do not know".

The album was Gord's first gold record in the U.S. (500,000 or more sold) and hit a lofty number twelve on the Billboard charts in 1970, and went gold in both Canada and Australia.

Answer: Cold on the Shoulder

Wearing a shawl could help keep the rain off and it definitely would help keep the cold off one's shoulders. "Cold on the Shoulder" hit number ten on the Billboard charts in 1975, went gold in Canada, and was one of Gord's top international sales successes. Yet, Lightfoot himself was critical of his own performance on the album and was actually surprised and even a little confused to its success at home and abroad.

It had done well enough in Europe that the record producers decided to test it in the market of Czechoslovakia, which was then considered a "Cold War" country.

It had minimal success, but it served its purpose of getting Gord further renowned on the difficult to break into international musical stage.

Answer: Sundown

Coming out in 1974, "Sundown" also sold over one million copies as a single on 45rpm, and both the album and the single hit number one on the U.S. Billboard charts, the first time and only time in Gord's career that his music reached that 'untouchable' position. The song "Sundown" isn't about sunsets. It's about a 'mysterious' woman who had seemingly broken his heart and yet, he was unable to move away from the emotional pain that the tumultuous relationship had caused him. It was widely rumored to be about Cathy Evelyn Smith, the "groupie" who was later charged with contributing to the death of John Belushi and who Gord had a torrid affair with for many months in the early '70s. The song was the perfect example of the personal and psychologically emotional bond he was increasingly developing with his loyal fans.

Source: Wikipedia

Answer: Gord's Gold Volume 2

"Gord's Gold Volume 2" came out in 1988, going gold in the U.S. (500,000 in sales) and platinum in Canada (100,000 in sales). Unlike his other sets and hit collections that were released, "Gord's Gold" and "Gord's Gold Volume 2" contained songs that were all re-recorded by him.

Answer: Summer Side of Life

"Summer Side of Life", released in 1971, came on the heels of his highly successful "Sit Down Young Stranger" from 1970. Gord, never too shy to use his songs to address worldly issues, was true to his humanist form on "Summer Side of Life" by using it to delve deeply into the intense sorrow and emotional pain suffered by Vietnam vets and all who knew and loved them. Although the song's roots are rarely discussed, he has approached the subject in a couple of personal interviews, as well as in a published autobiography about his first 25 years in the recording industry. With that album's success, even Gord knew that it would be difficult to top and this album barely broke the Billboard Top 11 chart, coming in at number 98.

Personal note: In February of 2001, I received a phone call from Gordon Lightfoot himself, after I had written a heartfelt letter to him about how his music, mostly the song "Summer Side Of Life", had so powerfully affected my life. In the two hour conversation, he revealed to me the meaning of the song and its purpose. He said that the song was about one of the worst times in North America's history (Vietnam War). Interestingly, it wasn't far off from what I had thought it to be about, but it was very different from what most people thought Gord's song was pertaining to.