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"Back Here On Earth" del 1968, quarto album in studio di Gordon Lightfoot: il titolo è una dichiarazione d'intenti, dopo i suoni più orchestrali di "The Way I Feel" e "Did She Mention My Name?", album più che buoni; ma che ad oggi suonano forse un po' disorganici ed invecchiati il menestrello di Toronto fa un passo indietro: torna all'essenzialità, all'acustico, al folk puro e semplice dei suoi sfolgoranti esordi. Tuttavia, "Back Here On Earth" non è un nuovo "Lightfoot!", non ha il fascino, l'atmosfera struggente, la poetica bucolica, antica e senza tempo di quel debutto di bellezza disarmante, ma è a tutti gli effetti il secondo grande disco del Nostro un album breve e diretto, dal temperamento essenziale, schietto e vibrante.
Come in "Lightfoot!", anche qui la strumentazione è ridotta all'osso: voce, chitarre acustiche e basso, eppure l'album offre svariati stili ed atmosfere, non c'è assolutamente spazio per la noia e la ripetitività. "Long Way Back Home" e "Unsettled Ways", sono tipiche folk song lightfootiane a ritmo di walzer, dalle melodia semplice e cristallina, con un tocco di enfaticità che si stampa subito in testa; "Long Thin Dawn" punta invece su un sound vivace e ruspante, di gusto più americano che canadese, le stupende "Marie Christine" e "Don't Beat Me Down", propongono un vero e proprio folk rock senza corrente elettrica con arpeggi robusti e sostenuti, ritmi ben scanditi e voce secca e decisa pur senza essere eccessivamente ruvida: l'eleganza ed un certo tocco di lirismo sono infatti nelle corde di Gord Lightfoot, e anche "Back Here On Earth" offre momenti di grande cantautorato, come ad esempio "Bitter Green", singolo di lancio dell'album, racconta con sommessamente, con tatto e delicatezza la storia di un amore perduto che si ritrova troppo tardi, e per il suo stile aulico rimanda direttamente alle atmosfere di "Lightfoot!", "Affair On The 8th Avenue" è una ballad dalle atmosfere soffuse e spiccatamente noir, intrise di fascino e sofferenza e "Cold Hands From New York", narra lo smarrimento di uno straniero, intrappolato tra le insidie della grande città con piglio epico e deciso, da vero storyteller, ed è la canzone più lunga e ricercata dell'album, che si chiude declinando dolcemente con la breve ed estatica "The Gypsy" ed infine con la serena e liberatoria "If I Could", un suo personale manifesto e dichiarazione d'intenti in cui canta "If I could stand like a rusty old man in his armor, if I could ride the steed that he rode in his time, I would turn his head away to the river and let him wander to the meadow grass, wild and free for everyone to see".
Un grande album, elegante, curato, che incanta per la bellezza e l'evocatività dei suoni e per i testi come sempre stupendi, fa specie che non raggiunga le cinque stelle; incredibile a dirsi, Gordon Lightfoot ha inciso almeno quattro/cinque album migliori di "Back Here On Earth", e questo la dice lunga sulla qualità del repertorio del Nostro che, proprio nei sette anni successivi a questo disco darà inizio alla sua irripetibile età dell'oro.
Elenco tracce testi e video
04 Bitter Green ()
©1968 by Gordon Lightfoot
Upon the bitter green she walked the hills above the town
Echo to her footsteps as soft as Eider down
Waiting for her master to kiss away her tears
Waiting through the years
Bitter Green they called her
Walking in the sun
Loving everyone that she met
Bitter Green they called her
Waiting in the sun
Waiting for someone to take her home
Some say he was a sailor who died away at sea
Some say he was a prisoner who never was set free
Lost upon the ocean he died there in the mist
Dreaming of her kiss
Bitter Green they called her
Walking in the sun
Loving everyone that she met
Bitter Green they called her
Waiting in the sun
Waiting for someone to take her home
But now the bitter green is gone, the hills have turned to rust
There comes a weary stranger, his tears fall in the dust
Kneeling by the churchyard in the autumn mist
Dreaming of a kiss
Bitter Green they called her
Walking in the sun
Loving everyone that she met
Bitter Green they called her
Waiting in the sun
Waiting for someone to take her home
Bitter Green they called her
Walking in the sun
Loving everyone that she met
Bitter Green they called her
Waiting in the sun
Waiting for someone to take her home
05 The Circle Is Small ()
It's alright for some, but not alright for me
When the one that I'm lovin' slips around
You think it's fine to do - things I cannot see
And you're doin' it to me
Baby can't you see that I know how it is
Chorus:
I can see it in your eyes
And feel it in the way you kiss my lips
I can hear it in your voice
Whenever we are talking like this
I can see what you believe in
When his name is mentioned and I die
I can watch the way you walk
The way you talk, the way you close your eyes
It's alright for some but not alright for me
When the one that I'm lovin' can't be found
The city where we live might be quite large
But the circle is small
Why not tell us all and then all of us will know
(Chorus)
It's alright to leave, but not alright to lie
When you come home and you can't say where you've been
You think it's fine to do things I cannot see
And you're doin' it to me
Baby can't you see that I know how it is
(Chorus repeat and fade)
08 Affair on 8th Avenue ()
The perfume that she wore was from some little store
On the down side of town
But it lingered on long after she'd gone
I remember it well
And our fingers entwined like ribbons of light
And we came through a doorway somewhere in the night
Her long flowing hair came softly undone
And it lay all around
And she brushed it down as I stood by her side
In the warmth of her love
And she showed me her treasures of paper and tin
And then we played a game only she could win
And she told me a riddle I'll never forget
Then left with the answer I've never found yet
How long, said she, can a moment like this
Belong to someone
What's wrong, what is right, when to live or to die
We must almost be born
So if you should ask me what secrets I hide
I'm only your lover, don't make me decide
The perfume that she wore was from some little store
On the down side of town
But it lingered on long after she'd gone
I remember it well
And she showed me her treasures of paper and tin
And then we played a game only she could win
And our fingers entwined like ribbons of light
And we came through a doorway somewhere in the night
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