The "one" Gordon Lightfoot album you could never do without!

[johnfowles]

Originally Posted by geodeticman.5

Oh - and a 3k-watt Honda generator as back up or source for power , if its the desert island scenario -
~geo steve

Cor Blimey young Steve you have managed in one fell swoop to get the scoop on a future thread I was planning
Some time ago I was musing aboot earlier threads that posed such perennial questions as "what are your (top 5/10/very favourite GL (love) songs" and came up with great idea for a thread.This began to form in my mind during the long (8.5 hour) drive from NJ to Toronto on Nov. 15th 2006. I remembered a very long running BBC radio programme first broadcast on 29 Jan. 1942 so it is the world's oldest radio programME. Each week a celebrity was asked to imagine being marooned on a Desert Island with only a gramophone and a power supply and limited to his/her choice of a limited number of Desert Island Discs see:-
the "wiki" at:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Island_Discs
In a flash I was mindful of

2. Mr Sober Rodents effort to compile a number of 90 minute cassettes
   
3. that to burn a compilation CD one must keep in mind at a blank CD will hold just a "nominal" 80 minutes of audio (a length agreed upon by Sony and Phillips in their joint specification for their proposed Compact Disc format)(both companies wished to avoid the format problem that led to the inferior JVC VHS videotape format winning the contest over their own superior Betamax and Video 2000 formats respectively) which has recently erupted again in the current Blue Ray/HD-DVD contest
   
4. Urban rumour has it that 74 minutes was chosen because that just so happens to be the average time it takes to perform the Beethoven Choral Symphony (number 9).
   
5. blank CD-s are marked with a suspiciously rounded capacity of 700MB or 80 minutes of audio
   (earlier these were 74 minutes and 650MB)
   
6. the 4 Songbook CDs are each at the maximum of about 76 minutes
   

I therefore wanted to propose a thread that would imagine that you were going to be marooned on a Desert Island with a CD Player and a generator but that you could only have just the one Lightfoot Compilation CD, and if so what would you want on that one CD-R.The problem as that any attempt to compile a "best" of GL collection is of course doomed to failure because as we all know it is exceedingly difficult to impose any limit due to the fantastic range our "jongleur' has presented us with.
I suddenly realised that what was needed was some form of discipline and this implied setting some basic rules.
Taking my cue from the fact that 80 minutes as evidenced by the 4 Songbook CDs which are about 76 minutes each and 21-24 tracks and that Gord has so far released the famous 20 "original" albums including Sunday Concert, plus what is in effect a 21st comprising the 16/18 "rarities" included in Songbook.
One complication is that both "Gord's Gold" albums contain rerecorded versions with different track times, plus GG1 has the extra track "If It Should please You" that is not included on any other album
I thought about these rules and eventually concluded that good starting rules would be
[list=1]
[*]There must be at least one track from each of those 21 albums
[*]to cover a few cases where in your case there are two tracks that you simply could not live without there must be a maximum of two tracks from any one album
[*]As there are a significant number of other GL recordings that never made it onto an actual "official" album that you might want to include (in my case the sadly neglected single hit "Spin Spin" and the magnificent, recorded for a television special, "Face Of A Thousand People") plus any of the songs on the early albums "Two Tones At The Village Corner", "Early Lightfoot",Canadian Talent Library, Warner Demos plus the rare tracks on the La Cave bootlegs "Yellow Bird" and "Get Together" and a few more bootlegs, there should be a further one or two from that category.
The next problem is devising a simple way to determine the Total Running Time of your selection, ideally with provision to add and remove tracks easily and recalculate that time,
WARNING for those liable to get bored or with a propensity of getting bad headaches
what follows will be "techie" talk and is incomplete so skip it rather than complain please:-
Bear in mind also that the maximum capacity of a blank CD-R is not actually 80 minutes but 700MB worth of audio files in CD format ("wav" files are what you basically get if you "rip" tracks from a CD.Plus the complication that you may be selecting from a set of mp3 files compressed from wavs.
I mention that point because I have in fact managed to burn one perfect audio CD that has a TRT of 80 minutes 52 seconds from a folder of mp3s that the simple DOS utilty mp3indx shows is indeed 81 minutes
yet ripping it to wavs produces the file total of way over 800MB for reasons I completely fail to understand.I am still however investigating this discrepancy and hope to report back in due course.
In order to get the TRT I can see the following methods:-

2. If you have a pen/pencil and paper and know the individual track times do a "simple" bit of arithmetic well not that simple because long ago the Phoenicians used base 60 for minutes and seconds but that is is another subject entirely
   (it would be far easier if there were 100 seconds in one minute and 100 minutes in one hour but that will never be!!!
   
3. Use a neat Java applet from a site that I will refind
   
4. Convert all tracks from wavs to mp3s and use mp3indx
   
5. Load up Nero** with the wavs it will tell you the TRT
   **in passing another nice urban legend is that the commonly used German program known as "Nero" that often comes bundled with CD/DVD burners has the full title "Nero Burning ROM" because Nero fiddled whilst Rome burned and Rome in Germany is spelt ROM, and nothing whatever therefore to do with Read Only Memory!
   
6. Create a spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel
   
7. Use Online Google docs. a.k.a. "cloud computing"
   
8. In my case use a superb old DOS only programME called Surefire written by a team at Piaf Inc in ColoUrful ColoUrado
   led by Peter Makula who when I contacted admitted that he had run out of funding to develop a Windows version more's the pity because it is far easier to learn than the bloatware known as Microsoft Office and far more useable. Because starting with any text file Surefire allowed you to insert fields (cells) anywhere you wished on the text document that mimicked Microsoft's Word the cells rapidly made a spreadsheet with all the formulas that Microsoft Excel includes,then you could from these cells create a database to rival Microsoft Access.
   OK there was one major problem the size of your total creation had to fit in the basic PC Random Access Memory of 640MB
   

Err Umm "Cloud Computing"??
what's that then??? I thought you'd never ask!!
To be honest I was not really sure but fortuneately recently I received a newsletter which had a link to a page at:-
http://www.wxpnews.com/RK5CBN/080812-Google-Docs
where I was pleased to read:-
"There has been a lot of talk lately in tech circles about "cloud computing," but what is it, really? The "cloud" refers to the Internet (based on the symbol used to represent the Internet in network diagrams) and computing "in the cloud" refers to using applications and services that are provided over the Internet, rather than being installed on your local computer. Perhaps the best- known aspect of cloud computing is "software as a service" (SaaS).
With SaaS, instead of buying application programs, you rent them.
Google goes further, with its online applications such as Google Docs, an "in the cloud" word processing, spreadsheet and presentation application that's intended to compete with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint"
so what you say??.
well if I can recall my rusty spreadsheet skills I should be able to create an online
spreadsheet come database containing drop down lists for every album sand suitable check boxes and with the track time for every track that everybody could then access and pick their own selection from and see immediately without having to count on their fingers and toes the Total Running Time of their then current selection.
I have yet to decide for my own use if the rules could be relaxed to allow a double CD, noting that Gord's Gold 1 of course is esentially a double album
OK enough for now else this will never get posted . 'sides which I will be away all next week
but I'll continue ASAP with a suggestion for a customisable CD jewel case front insert and my own Desert Island GL Compact Disc details
Phew OK Ron and CHar the coast is now clear!!!!

[johnfowles]

OK I edited that posting 6 or 7 times but failed miserably to get all the text the same font and size plus the numbered lists kept appearing incorrectly but at least now it is fully readable
A major problem was that, as I know Steve has discovered there is an upper limit of 10000o characters before a posting will be accepted (5000 for Private Messages) so I had to continuously edit to get there. There is a character count in Microsoft Word (Tools>Word count) but either it or corfid is highly inaccurate because when I was down to corfid 10300 Word claimed only 8883!!!

[talbot10]

MY Fat ASS is partial to Shadows
Bill

[geodeticman.5]

Sir John, lol,, its just my pleasant primary preponderance of pre-cognitive prescience, I learned this on the planet Vulcan...

hope I did not "steal you thunder" or "let the air ouf your balloon", John ..lol..... the thread sounds fun...are you going to post it in a unique thread ? er.. it probably is and I didn't see it yet....

BTW - do you remember in 2006 or 7, there was a thread (I have not researched yet) where the "desert island scenario" was mentioned in this vein......if only wording in one post reply.... but the premise was the same in at least the post, if not the thread.... but thats OK, I've always thought it was party poopers that said "Oh thats been done before".... well we wanna do it AGAIN ! lol far as I'm concerned, you wanna do that thread, my prescience and old posts notwithstanding, I say go for it.

Look at the Florian-originated "What is your favourite [Lightfoot] song and why? - its up to like 1 billion posts now, falls back down in cold storage, then anytime someone wants to post, it rises to the top again - thats cause its a classic ! Just as the desert island scenario - a neo-classic at least... so lets do it. I don't know 'bout you John, but the requirements make my simple head hurt.......can you bottom line-it, even giving the 'skip this part of this post if shop-tech-talk bores you" courtesy which, as you and I have discussed, I have used when I would spew loquaciously for 15,000 characters and have to bleary-eyed, chop it into something readable...lol


And BTW - I like your webring home page et al , John, I signed in. You Geodesic rascal, you. That dirty word - geodesic...oh no....was only for prevocative/evocative reasons - lol.....I still have 2 of 6 parts to send you in PM 'cause of that stupid 5,000 character count max on PM's, or are you back up on hotmail ?

it woud not be so bad if PM's had a max character exceeded warning.... and/or a word count that is accurate, problem I am familiar with on those in structured programming is that some algorithms require spell-check compliance to have words accurately be counted.... hence the lower numbers, from code I have seen...ostensibly the code does not recognize large numbers of raw first-draft verbage as all "words" - especially my two-finger hunt-and-peck, with a drummers speed, but terrible errors count, my first drafts of anything are comical.... word count... wait a minute.....not word count... CHARACTER count.... my programmatic problem should not even be concerned with word-recognition... oh well... OK so.... are we to post mid thread for our desert island choices, or.... I'll look out at thread titles, maybe you have a new one there versus pg 2 this thread.... either way sounds fun. I'm gonna have to think though ?, dang it....

lol
~geo steve

p.s. talbot10/bill - why on your fat ass ? why the self-deprecation ? re: your post above on Shadows ?

[geodeticman.5]

John I did not know what a jongleur was, so I looked it up. My guess was a Mediaevil times troubadour by context, but the French sound threw me, so I then guessed maybe a multi-skilled entertainer because of the sounds-like "juggler" quality to it. Sounds French, and maybe the term jugglers comes from it ? here is what I saw when I looked it up:

the jongleurs, a group of travelling entertainers in western Europe who sang, did tricks, and danced to earn their living; the troubadours in the south of France and the trouvères in the north; and the minnesingers, a class of artist-knights who wrote and sang love songs - Encycl. Brittanica

-pretty much what the context looked like !

I was wondering about all this prescience you'd mentioned on desert island.... i see....


And regarding COR BLIMEY , which must be a British exclamation of exasperation or frustration by context, I found this :

*from*: "The Phrase Finder"
Cor blimey

Meaning

An exclamation of surprise.

Origin

A euphemism (specifically a minced oath) derived from 'God blind me'.

hhm much similar to what I once heard the origin of the British adjective "Bloody" was: a contraction of By-Our-lady [the Queen]. Say it fast, and one can guess at a stretch that is the case - your opinion John ? As a gen-u-ine England'er ?

pretty much what the context looked like

Now, importantly, return for me to:

ON-THREAD:

since the rules bent to allow any release, I'll go with

Songbook

,

For the purist, a single LP or CD , I'd still stick with Sundown - which has all of his "range of song types for the first half of the '70's", IMO; except one - the great love Ballad eg "Your Love's Return", "A Minor Ballad", "The Last Time I saw Her", and I don't know why I overlook the enigmatic IYCRMM, in that genre of his, I guess because I think of it as unfulfilled love....I think the song is magnificent; almost defining for Gordon Lightfoot, at least for maybe a 5-year period - especially to people who were/are not Lightheads that did/do not know of his great works previously such as CRT, Softly etc/.

I wonder what song people associate with him career-wise, when asked as a non-fan, but know of him and a handful of hit songs. Surely Sundown, TWOTEF, IYCRMM, Carefree Highway in my experience are candidates; and in my experience they are the 4 songs that people who know of him; but are not fans, but are at that stage of (barest of knowledge of his music): "Oh yeah...I LOVE that one song..uhm.... Read my Mind, your mind, that one".

AND, its not unusual they do not connect Sundown with it [IYCRMM] at that level of "song on the tip of their tongue of his" they loved [in college, High School, etc - I hear that a LOT in the 50 - 55 age group of my contemporaries, i think because it was his first IMO widespread Gold blockbuster. Then, thinking of the sound of IYCRMM, they then have difficulty "hearing in their mind" the other 3 of the big 4 they probably heard many, many times on the radio, other 3 being Sundown, TWOTEF, and "Carefree Highway"- which could not be MORE different - which for one thing completely diffuses the categorical, ignorance-based criticism of Lightfoot, that is in my experience "All his stuff sounds alike" - look at just those 4 are SO different from one another, except maybe the 2 from Sundown.

I can really picture people not connecting any one to the other two at all when they can count on one hand the tunes they can almost work out in their head, but may not know the names of... I know that is a bit off-thread there, but its not substantive enough a of subject for its own thread. Or is it ? Actually, it might be - as in A Thread: "What songs in your opinion uniquely define GL's different styles, or best typify them." - I may try that. Shortened-up so it'll fit in the thread name spot !

For this post, this thread, it builds on to my album choice reasoning.. - that of Sundown, for the vary reason of so many styles of Gord's - Sundown vs. Too Late for Prayin, etc.
Thats my choice, if one.

~geo steve

[Jesse Joe]

"Don Quixote" is an Album I could never do without !

[BILLW]

Originally Posted by Jesse Joe

"Don Quixote" is an Album I could never do without !

I knew you had good taste ! Welcome Back. Got any pictures of your trip to share with us ?

Bill

[Jesse Joe]

Hi BillW and thanks,

I just noticed that you also couldn't do without "Don Quixote" ! Fantastic Album !!! As far as pics some in the group have a few, but posting them here is another thing ?

[charlene]

Start a thread in SMALL TALK and post some pics or send a link to a photosite where you might have put them. I use OFOTO..
I am still going thru my pics of the glorious province of Nova Scotia and will put a few up soon.

[Nightingale]

LOL...Patti...you are funny, girl.

On the weird side, if I got a tattoo, it would be a dove...no joke about that.

Let's see....I would have to go with The United Artist Collection.
I love it so much but it might lose it's place when I get the rest of Gordon's music.

I am loving the Salute and Cold On The Shoulder cd's very, very much.
There is some good music on those two.

Summertime Dream. It is the only recording I've paid to own in three formats (album, tape and CD).

[johnfowles]

OK Steve I am replying briefly using my "wondertoy" Nokia N800 on a rather tenuous free unsecured connection in the money grabbing downtown Chicago Sheraton.which will probably be the last hotel in the US providing free internet access not a recommended hotel.
"Jongleur" was how lady lane described Gord in her description of one of her recent vistories which you probably have not yet seen because the Nova Scotia reprobate is so far behind in his job or might as I suggested have voluntarily resigned from. AFAIK Steve my hotmail is now working allright at least for incoming emails so scribble way unencumbered by any word or character total an unecessary and unwelcome restriction

[Patti]

Nightingale, I really wasn't joking. I was really feeling like that would be a good tattoo to get, but I don't have a special someone.

[johnfowles]

Originally Posted by johnfowles

OK Steve I am replying briefly using my "wondertoy" Nokia N800 on a rather tenuous free unsecured connection in the money grabbing downtown Chicago Sheraton.which will probably be the last hotel in the US providing free internet access not a recommended hotel.

I omitted to mention other profitering charges at the Sh... Hotel
As well as a high $11.25 per 24 hours for internet access , there were no free phone calls except room to room and local or "toll free" calls racked up a charge of $2.25 per minute for ten minutes and 10cents/minute thereafter. But those charges pale into insignificence compared to use of the (non) gold plated 3 computers in the "Business" Center.
I gathered that merely sitting in front of one even if not using the internet I would be charged a ridiculous 60 cents per minute ($36.00 per hour). No thank you very much!!
To be fair as a magnanimous gesture the Business Center actually allowed you to use a computer for nowt to print out an airline boarding passes for which you were allowed a staggering 3 minutes to complete!!

[christine75]

Hi borderstone.I would have to say Songbook for sure. I have already worn out on complete box set of that and i am now on my second.

[timetraveler]

There's no way on earth that I could, or would, be able to do without ANY af his albums.

[Jesse Joe]

Very well answered tt, I should have said that !

[ELizabeth]

Bordestone...Good question. I have to throw in my vote with DQ. That is a nearly perfect album along with IYCRMM.

[Borderstone]

Hey Christine 1975! Hello to you too! Excellent choice by the way.

Of course I think "any" Gordon Lightfoot album is worth having but,if you have to choose one,you have too.

[GJA]

If I HAD to choose, it would be "Old Dan's Records".

[Travis]

Alright, I'll be the odd man out on this one. I couldn't possibly do without "Waiting for You." 15 years after first buying it, it's still my favorite album ever. And it just doesn't get the love it deserves. When I found out it was out of print, I bought two extra copies. Having somehow lost them both (I later recovered one), I downloaded the album from iTunes (it's still available there!).

I get the impression Gord knows that it's a great album, even if it doesn't get rated among his best. He still plays the title track and "Restless" at every show, and if I recall, I think he played half the album at the recorded/televised Reno show.

[Travis]

Woops. somehow that double-posted, so I'm just editing overtop of the double.

[MikeNZ]

Hi, a newbie from New Zealand here.

I would find it very hard to choose, but for me Summer Side Of Life would be the one.
I love 'Miguel' especially.

Mike

[Jesse Joe]

Hi MikeNZ,

Miguel is also a song that I always did like. Welcome to Corfid, hope you can post more about this great poet ~gl~

[jj]

Originally Posted by Travis

Alright, I'll be the odd man out on this one. I couldn't possibly do without "Waiting for You." ... I think he played half the album at the recorded/televised Reno show.

well, he played a good chunk of it, i sure wish he did Drink Your Glasses Empty...anyhow, i'm with you (although i think i picked Songbook / ODR)

from the album review at www.lightfoot.ca:

"With prominent voice and acoustic guitar tracks and unembellished arrangements with his long-time touring band, Waiting For You shares more in common with Lightfoot's early classics than with the work he released in the late '70's and early '80's"