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Old 02-03-2005, 02:58 PM   #9
Auburn Annie
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 3,101
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Gord had a five-album contract with United Artists, and put out some fine stuff but never got the marketing or airplay in the U.S. that fellow artists got. He recorded 4 studio albums for them and did the live "Sunday Concert" album to fulfill his obligations to UA. Also in the late 60s / early 70s UA Records and the UA film division were going through their own upheavals, and less attention was being given to their recording artists in general, not just Gord.

Meanwhile the Reprise label (Warners) was a better fit, both philosophically and financially, and his record sales took off. He apparently had a happy relationship with the record producers at Warners.

I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been to be banging out one wonderful song after another and have nothing really catch fire south of the border. I suspect some of it had to do with word "Canadian" in front of the phrase "singer-songwriter" since John Denver, Jim Croce, and James Taylor, singer-songwriters all, were Gord's contemporaries on the music scene and were all over the airwaves, even in the 70s when Gord was with Reprise and getting fair coverage. Such is the music biz.
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