Gordon Lightfoot Forums - Showdown # Seven

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#1. Waiting For You

#2. A tie between Salute & Harmony

#3. Don Quixote

#4. GG2

#5. East Of Midnight

#6. Cold On The Shoulder

Summerside Of Life vs. Summertime Dream
Which one of the "summer" albums is the better? :D

... Summertime Dream ... easily

Summertime Dream - even though SOLM is on the other.

Sinch! :D "Summer Side Of Life". ;)

Despite Summertime Dream having the now classic TWOTEF and good songs like "Never Too Close" and "The House You Live In",I really like nearly all the songs on "Summer Side..." a lot more. :)

[ April 15, 2006, 14:45: Message edited by: Borderstone ]

Summertime Dream, but it's close!

Summer Side of Life!

Summertime Dream.
I have just installed a new computer program called " zap a transgressor's privates "

Those who vote for SSOL hereafter can expect a stabbing pain somewhere between the tummy & the knees. Vote rigging Sydney style ! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I just can't decide. I like both of them!

At the risk of stabbing pain somewhere between the tummy and the knees, I have to go with SSOL :D

Hi, B'stone. Once again I disagree with you--amazing, considering how much I respect your knowledge, enjoy your posts and wouldn't mind meeting you and shooting the breeze! Oh, well...chacun a son gout, de gustibus non disputandum est, sobre gustos no hay nada escrito...
If there's a "cinch",it's Summertime Dream. SSOL, which I certainly like, pales in comparison to the two albums around it--IYCRMM and DQ. It has some fine songs (the title track, Cotton Jenny, Miguel, Same Old Loverman Ten Degrees and Getting Colder--am I the only one that thinks that this song sounds like "The Gambler" but in a different tempo?), some pretty good ones (Talking in Your Sleep, Love and Maple Syrup), and some fairly weak ones (Go My Way, Cabaret, Redwood Hill). Summertime Dream, beyond the big hit (which I like, of course, but wouldn't rate in my top 20 favorites), has a depth and maturity that isn't there in SSOL. The title track has the same "small -town feel" as Cotton Jenny, but is just a much bigger song. Spanish Moss is as beautiful a tune as he has written, Race Among the Ruins is both catchy and upbeat, while being philosophical, and The House You Live In is a song some people have said is what they use for their life's philosophy; while I wouldn't go that far, it's an excellent song. I'm Not Supposed to Care, I'd put up against Talking in Your Sleep for a breakup song, and the instrumentation is just all so tight and much more sophisticated than on SSOL. The album does have a few weaker songs (never cared much for I'd Do It Again, but it's not awful); the antiwar message of Protocol is a bit dated (why is that, I wonder?), but it's still a pretty good song, and Too Many Clues I can take or leave. Still, all in all a much better album, and I say this noting that my prejudices usually run toward the older stuff.
Cheers,
DQ (not "Quixote", by the way!)

Hi Don! :) Well,I do also like Spanish Moss,thanks for remeinding me.

My main reason for SSOL over SD is that most of the songs on SD,just don't grab me emotionally. This is not just true in talking of Gord's music but of anything I listen too.

"Wreck","Spanish Moss","Never Too Close" are songs I can emotionally relate too. The rest either give me very little reaction or (don't get :mad: but),none. Not that Gord's songs aren't good (and they are) but I just don't relate the same way as w/ SSOL's songs.

To each his own man. ;) As we can see...you have your extended reasons as well. :D :cool:

Summertime Dream - Hands down.

Excellent ... close the polling booths whilst we're still ahead.

it's a tie for me - each one has one song I don't care for - the rest on both albums are all gems.....
too hard to pick......

now if it was deciding which of those two songs i dislike more it would be Love and Maple Syrup and not I'd Do It Again.....
;)

Hi, again, B'stone. I see where you're coming from--you think SSOL has songs that are more "real" and have a greater emotional impact; I like the the crafting of SD much better. Nope, no reason to be mad at all--we're just looking for different things. As a teacher and student of poetry, I like to pick apart words, metaphors, phrasings and the like. You go for the emotional. I also daresay there's quite a bit of overlap between the two as well--GL's music, much of it anyway, hits a visceral place in me, too, right to the pure emotions. And I suspect you are impressed by the way the man puts his words together. Just two different ways of seeing greatness.
Cheers,
DQ

Summertime Dream

(I love - I'd Do It Again)