Summertime Dream by Gordon Lightfoot (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Summertime Dream

Artist name: Gordon Lightfoot

Year: 1976

Number of discs: one

Label: Reprise Records

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Buy it:

Amazon (Vinyl): $29.01

Amazon (CD): $11.87

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve heard of Gordon Lightfoot and know his signature song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

What I expected

Folk rock.

What it was actually like

It was folky with more of a country sound than rock.

I’ve never really understood The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It’s always seemed hyper-serious – and dozens of people dying in a shipwreck is a serious subject – but isn’t it way too self-important not to be a joke? Or is it offensive even to suggest that it’s a joke? Anyway, it’s really not such a bad song at all, but some quality about it makes me unable to shake the idea that it’s a Weird Al Yankovic style parody of over-the-top 1970s singer-songwriter self-importance.

All the songs on this record besides The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald were boring and forgettable.

Grade

2/5: weak, but I was able to listen to the whole thing