Gordon Lightfoot - Seattle Opera House, Seattle, WA, 5-16-1974

First off, I have to point out that I've only posted two Gordon Lightfoot albums here so far, both of them concerts, but weirdly, I recently found reasons to change the titles of both of them. In one case, a 1966 concert, I discovered I got the venue wrong. In the other case, a 1971 concert, I hadn't known the exact date, and I recently found out what that was. So I've changed the cover art and mp3 tags and such for both of those. If that kind of thing matters to you, you might want to re-download them.

Moving on to this concert, Lightfoot's popularity peaked in the mid-1970s, with some big singles and hit albums. However, he never capitalized on that to release a live album around then. Even now, there is only one official live album of his from his peak 1960s and 1970s decades, which was recorded in early 1969.

So I thought another live album from the mid-1970s was nice. It turns out there are very few widely circulating bootlegs by him, in part no doubt because there are very few recorded with excellent sound. I figure the most popular is a soundboard recorded in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1976. But I'm not a big fan of that one because it was recorded with a full band, and their arrangements don't sound that different from the album versions.

I recently came across this one, and I like it a lot better. Technically, it's not a soundboard. But it's an excellent audience recording that sounds as good as a large percentage of soundboards. However, what I like most about it is that he performed in a more stripped down format, with just a lead guitarist and bassist accompanying him. The lack of drums and strings and other instruments means you get significantly different versions of many songs. Plus, the fact that it was recorded in 1974 means you get most of his 1970s hits, including one of his biggest, "Sundown."

While the sound quality was generally very good, something about it seemed a bit off. I guessed the bass was too prominent. So I shared it with my musical friend MZ, who is better at that sort of thing. He agreed with me about the bass problem, and improved the equalization to take care of that. It sounds significantly better now.

Lightfoot actually performed two concerts on this date, an early one and a late one. The bootleg includes all of both. There was a lot of repetition, so I've decided to base this on the early show, since it sounded a little better, and was one song longer. But I've added the five songs at the end that were only played at the late concert. So you get the best of both.

If you only count the early show, the concert is an hour and three minutes long. But with the extra late show songs added at the end, the total is an hour and 21 minutes.

01 High and Dry (Gordon Lightfoot)
02 Tennessee Stud (Gordon Lightfoot)
03 Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot)
04 Seven Island Suite (Gordon Lightfoot)
05 Alberta Bound (Gordon Lightfoot)
06 talk (Gordon Lightfoot)
07 Don Quixote (Gordon Lightfoot)
08 Christian Island (Gordon Lightfoot)
09 It's Worth Believin' (Gordon Lightfoot)
10 talk (Gordon Lightfoot)
11 Beautiful (Gordon Lightfoot)
12 Partners (Gordon Lightfoot)
13 talk (Gordon Lightfoot)
14 The Auctioneer (Gordon Lightfoot)
15 talk (Gordon Lightfoot)
16 Divorce Country Style (Gordon Lightfoot)
17 talk (Gordon Lightfoot)
18 If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot)
19 talk (Gordon Lightfoot)
20 Cold on the Shoulder (Gordon Lightfoot)
21 Canadian Railroad Trilogy (Gordon Lightfoot)
22 talk (Gordon Lightfoot)
23 Too Late for Prayin' (Gordon Lightfoot)
24 Wherefore and Why (Gordon Lightfoot)
25 Affair on Eighth Avenue (Gordon Lightfoot)
26 Cotton Jenny (Gordon Lightfoot)
27 Sit Down Young Stranger (Gordon Lightfoot)
28 The Pony Man (Gordon Lightfoot)
29 Carefree Highway (Gordon Lightfoot)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693266/GORDNLGHTFT1974_SettlOpraHuse__5-16-1974_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any photos from this exact show. However, I found one from 1974, taken from his appearance on "The Midnight Special" TV show.