I too was hooked from his first UA album. While the songs and his voice are top rate, the recording of those albums was not, engineering wise....if that was technically remedied in the box set, I don't know. I own either on LP or CD all of Lightfoot's work, but in my view his apex was during that string of albums Don Quixote, Summertime Dream, Old Dan's Record, and If You Could Read My Mind (originally called Sit Down Young Stranger)....any of those 4 will be a wonderful intro
Barry (I agree to stay away, for now, from East of Midnite and the latter works....I would say the same for Dylan, Joni, Paul Simon, James Taylor.......the drop in talent and success may not have been precipitous, but I do believe the best of their work was given in the beginning or middle of their careers........not starting another thread here, but not many soloists/groups get better after an established history, with the exception of the Beatles in my view,which was part of the loss we felt in their early demise.....some felt the drop had already occurred with Let it Be, but that was not my opinion............)
PPS getting back to Gord, I usually stay away from recommending If You Could Read My Mind first since I think many feel the title song 'drove' the album, but the balance of that work is tremendous....so i would probably go there...
Barry
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