1. Somewhere U.S.A.
2. High and Dry
3. Seven Island Suite
4. Circle of Steel
5. Is There Anyone Home
6. The Watchman's Gone
7. Sundown
8. Carefree Highway
9. The List
10. Too Late for Prayin'
Amazon.com essential recording
This album wasn't Lightfoot's breakthrough recording, but it was both a demonstration of the rocking electric turn most folkies would make after Dylan's revolution, and a commercially successful marriage of soulful, R&B sensibility with folk narratives. The title cut is probably engrained in the memory of anyone with an A.M. radio in the '70s, but 20 years later, it sounds suggestive, even bluesy. "Carefree Highway" perhaps excessively romanticizes the road, but less familiar tracks like "Watchman's Gone" and "Too Late for Prayin'" are convincing statements of Lightfoot's lyrical endurance. --Roy Francis Kasten
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Sundown
- Audio CD: 0 pages (1990-10-25)
- Publisher: Warner Bros / Wea
- Label: Warner Bros / Wea
- Studio: Warner Bros / Wea
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 49 reviews
- Sales Rank in Music: #15662
Avg. Customer Review:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: back in the day, i bought this album for the title cut 2008-08-21
Comment: oh, and for "carefree highway," because those were the two hits.
and being experienced in these matters, i naturally expected the rest of the album to be filler--that's the way it always is, right?
well, not this time; i still remember ripping off the cellophane, the needle dropping and "somewhere usa" working its way into my soul for the first time. and it only got better with each song, to the point where the two songs i'd bought it for were probably my least-favorites of the whole album.
thirty-five years later, not much has changed--this was a five-star work of art then, and it still is now.
[and the fact that i expected the same magic from his follow-up, "cold on the shoulder," can be written off to my youthful ignorance of the eternal maxim that such lightning seldom strikes twice. live and learn.]
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Summary: A little trivia 2008-07-16
Comment: I concur with the many positive reviews of this CD. "Carefree Highway" and "High and Dry" are my personal favorites. "High and Dry" is a perky folk/rock tune, with a female on harmony (rare for Gordon). Credited as "Catherine Smith", she is a/k/a Cathy Smith, who moved to Hollywood after Lightfoot, and injected the speedball that killed John Belushi. Charged with John's manslaughter but acquited. FYI, the version of "High and Dry" on Gord's Gold 2 is a re-record; no Cathy and a much weaker song. In their usual fashion, iTunes left this song off their partial-album version of this CD.
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Summary: A Desert Island Disc to be sure 2008-02-14
Comment: To my ear, the Sundown album is not only Gordon Lightfoot's crowning achievement, but one of the best albums ever recorded. It is one of the only albums in my collection from the 70's that sounds as fresh today as it did at the time of its release. There is not a weak track on the album. From the intro of "Somewhere USA" to the final chord of "Too Late for Prayin'", Sundown remains a sublime listening experience.
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Summary: Great Lightfoot 2008-01-13
Comment: Thirty years later, and this album is still one of my favorites. Easy, flowing lyrics and guitar.
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Customer Rating:
Summary: My favorite album of all time 2008-01-11
Comment: This is Gordon Lightfoot's best album. "Watchman's Gone" and "Seven Island Suite" just add to his other two top hits "Sundown" and "Carefree Highway"."Circle of Steel" is another classic track. Beautifully written and beautifully played by the "Lightfoot" Band.
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Sundown
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