Gord's Gold

Gord's Gold
Greatest hits album by Gordon Lightfoot
Released November 1975
Recorded September 1969-July 1975, various studios
Genre Folk, Folk rock, Country folk
Length 73:43
Label Reprise
Producer Lenny Waronker & Joe Wissert
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

Gord's Gold is a compilation album released by Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot in 1975. Originally a vinyl double album, it was reissued on CD in 1987 (with one track, "Affair on Eighth Avenue", omitted to allow the collection to fit onto a single disc).

It was the first Lightfoot compilation to feature music from his 1970s Reprise Records albums, and also includes re-recordings of his 1960s United Artists hits (tracks 1-10). This served to update the earlier recordings to the same style as his later work and gives the album a level of consistency often lacking in similar compilations. Lightfoot's reasons for re-recording the United Artists tracks were explained in the liner notes as being because "he doesn't like listening to his early work".

Despite covering only the first decade of his career (and lacking one of his biggest hit singles, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", which was recorded the following year), Gord's Gold has remained the most commercially popular Lightfoot compilation. In 1988 Lightfoot released a second volume, Gord's Gold, Vol. 2, which also featured re-recordings of earlier hits.

Track listing

All compositions by Lightfoot.

(† Re-recording)

  1. "I'm Not Sayin'/Ribbon of Darkness"† – 3:06
  2. "Song for a Winter's Night"† – 3:02
  3. "Canadian Railroad Trilogy"† – 7:05
  4. "Softly"† – 2:39
  5. "For Lovin' Me/Did She Mention My Name"† – 3:29
  6. "Affair on Eighth Avenue"† - 3:45 (not included in the CD release)
  7. "Steel Rail Blues"† – 2:49
  8. "Wherefore and Why"† – 2:48
  9. "Bitter Green"† – 2:46
  10. "Early Morning Rain"† – 3:18
  11. "Minstrel of the Dawn" – 3:27
  12. "Sundown" – 3:36
  13. "Beautiful" – 3:32
  14. "Summer Side of Life" – 4:05
  15. "Rainy Day People" – 2:49
  16. "Cotton Jenny" – 3:26
  17. "Don Quixote" – 3:40
  18. "Circle of Steel" – 2:48
  19. "Old Dan's Records" – 3:05
  20. "If You Could Read My Mind" – 3:49
  21. "Cold on the Shoulder" – 3:01
  22. "Carefree Highway" – 3:41

Session personnel


All tracks produced by Lenny Waronker, except

"Minstrel Of The Dawn" and "If You Could Read My Mind" Produced By Lenny Waronker & Joe Wissert

"Summer Side Of Life" and "Cotton Jenny" Produced By Joe Wissert

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r96598