Gordon Lightfoot - Songbook [Box Set] (CD)

All Music Guide

Gordon Lightfoot's Songbook is a career-spanning, four-CD, 88-song box set with a pretty chronologically even balance of material from the mid-'60s through 1998. It also has 15 previously unreleased cuts as well as his 1962 debut single, "(Remember Me) I'm the One"/"It's Too Late, He Wins." One could quibble with the song selection ("Black Day in July" is missing, for instance) and the relatively light attention to his 1960s work (which is limited to disc one); an opportunity was also missed to include a rarity by excluding his mid-'60s single of Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb Blues." But generally it's a representative sampling of his most meaningful, or commercially successful, recordings. As for the previously unreleased songs, it's a tribute to Lightfoot's consistency that these don't sound out of step with the rest of the program. There are extensive liner notes in the enclosed hardbound book, along with comments on each song by Lightfoot himself. - Richie Unterberger, All Music... Guide Read more Less