Perhaps his most famous song but there’s so much more. I think Bob Dylan called him his favourite songwriter but that might require a citation. Anyhoo, I have put him forward as an example not an exemption. Who else has been largely forgotten but is great?
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Mrbellows says
*Exception. 🤦♂️
Jaygee says
Here’s another terrific Gordon L song
ipesky says
In another universe (and to be honest with a slightly different voice) Ed Sheehan would be opening for Ron Sexsmith on world tours.
Mrbellows says
Yup. The world is topsy turvy. Ed Sheeran might agree himself.
Jaygee says
In a world where there was any justice, Ed S would be ripping tickets as gig-goers entered the foyer
count jim moriarty says
UP!
Rigid Digit says
Jim Groce
Jaygee says
That’s the only JC album I have! Not played it in year, but remember some of the softer songs as being terrific. IIRC his wife sued for writers’ credits on most of JC’s songs after he died – anyone know if she won?
His son, AJ – I guess the little boy holding his old man’s straw hat on the inner sleeve of the Photographs and Memories collection – is now a respected if not mega-selling songwriter and performer in his own right
Wonder if JC would be more remembered if he and his guitarist hadn’t got on that plane…
Rigid Digit says
Only one I own too. Whenever I listen to it, I feel I should explore further
Jaygee says
Not sure. My copy of the greatest hits is on vinyl and hasn’t been dusted off (literally!) and played it in donkey’s years. Really ought to dig it out and give it a spin over the weekend
Billybob Dylan says
AJ’s album ‘Fit To Serve’ is pretty damn good.
retropath2 says
World leader here, of course, but in the real world there can hardly be a better case than Jackie Leven. Or, moving from Fife to Dundee, Michael Marra. Sticking with this theme, Perthshire’s Dougie Maclean. Hell, let’s add Rab Noakes whist we are on this theme..
Jaygee says
Excellent call on Jackie L although I think, unlike GL who had some quite big hits, (Sundown, If You Could Read my Mind, etc), Jackie’s more a case of criminally not better known than forgotten about
Bogart says
@jaygee A case for being ‘forgotten’ could be laid at the door of Cooking Vinyl (his record label) after his death they talked of retrospectives, re-issues etc and yet 10 years on we still wait.
Jaygee says
Jesus, is it really 10 years? I got into him around the time of Phantom a couple of years before he died and remember The Word also gave away that excellent free introductory CD in its first issue after his death.
Didn’t know CV had promised retrospectives, reissues, etc. They should at least try and broaden JL’s audience by releasing one of those two-disc “Essentials” primers. So many songs to choose from though…
thecheshirecat says
I was going to be part of a support act for Rab Noakes next month. That is a measure of how forgotten he is.
Jaygee says
Rab who?
Hamlet says
Drunk Again by Rab Noakes is one of the great ‘drunk’ songs. He’s also done a fantastic version of Gerry Rafferty’s Moonlight and Gold – it’s somewhere on YouTube.
retropath2 says
I first heard of Rab when I learnt/read he wrote this terrific song on Lindisfarne’s 2nd album. So about 50 years ago. Here’s his take on it:
bigstevie says
Not forgotten here. I have seen him more times than I have seen any other artist. Yes, lots of covers. Everly Brothers and Michael Marra seem obvious, but not so Radiohead and Talking Heads!
Bogart says
How is Jackie not a a household would most always the first topic of discussion whenever two or more members of the Church of Leven got together, on a selfish note his anonymity to the world at large permitted us to see him up close and personal in many many wonderful small (tiny) venues. https://youtu.be/tLkJ-8BuKdQ
retropath2 says
Indeed: many a tale boasts the smallest audience. It was maybe 15 when I first saw him. With one of those being @stevet long before I knew him and ahead of this site or it’s predecessor
Martin Hairnet says
A mate of mine played support to Jackie Leven in the back room of a pub in Cambridge, around the turn of the millenium. Jackie Leven turned up in safari shirt and shorts and open toed sandals (with socks!). Just him and his guitar on a chair and about 20 folks crowded around. Every now and again, the gig would stop as Jackie procured additional refreshment from the bar area. Great night of masterful singing and playing.
Feedback_File says
David Ackles – much revered by his contemporaries and notably Elton. His album American Gothic is genuinely magnificent. Spare 10 minutes of your time to listen to Montana Song.
Mrbellows says
Thoroughly enjoyed that. Thank you. What an amazingly clear and full recording too. @Fentonsteve
fentonsteve says
Oh, for the time when record labels would use an orchestra on pop records… Which reminds me a bit of this:
Podicle says
I bought a Judee Sill anthology early in lockdown as part of my CD purchasing frenzy (prob 150 cds in 4 months). I had always read about her harrowing life and expected dark and sombre music. I was very surprised to hear what appeared to be Karen Carpenter singing upbeat tin-pan alley songs. I quite like it, but file next to the Grateful Dead in the “Did they send me the wrong album?” category.
fentonsteve says
I hadn’t heard of her until Andy Partridge mentioned her in that XTC doco a few years back. I’m now considering the Intervention Records double 45rpm vinyl on import, but it is the wrong side of 50 quid.
dai says
A Canadian treasure, was in his home town of Orillia, ON a couple of weeks ago and paid homage at the statue of him there. Still playing live (or was) in his homeland.
What is it about Canada that produces so many incredible songwriters?
Sure this is his most famous song though:
Jaygee says
Surely “If you could read my mind”
dai says
Good call
NigelT says
Oh my, I do love his songs. I think he got a bit of an easy listening/MOR reputation as various artists covered his stuff, but I often have a GL binge. This is great…
Martin Hairnet says
The late, great Kevin Coyne is a name rarely mentioned at Afterword acres. Prolific and uncompromising, I always admired his fearless approach to songwriting. A unique style.
Mike_H says
Kevin was allegedly once asked to join a revived edition of The Doors. He turned them down “Because they were crap”.
His swansong album, One Day In Chicago, recorded with Jon Langford & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts a little while before he died and released not long after, is a pearl IMO.
Billybob Dylan says
One of my all time favorite songs is Kevin Coyne’s ‘Juliet & Mark.’
Beezer says
That’s wonderful.
fitterstoke says
I love that song…first LP I had by Kevin was In Living Black and White, and it’s probably still my favourite, not least because it was live…
Feedback_File says
I can’t for life of me imagine how KC would have fitted into the Doors! Certainly taken them in a different direction. Bit like asking Toby Jones to play James Bond.
NigelT says
How about Tim Hardin..? He seemed to have this incredible short period of writing some of the best songs ever before the demons got him. We were in the car yesterday and an awful rinky dink cover of this song came on my iPod shuffle from Jackie De Shannon, but I could listen to this over and over again and still get new meanings from it.
Podicle says
Agree. Seems his songwriting light burned short but strong. His entire reputation rests on one album.
Feedback_File says
I agree @NigelT – TH for a short period was certainly up there with the best but totally overlooked. Also what a voice! Never had any posthumous acclaim since even though his songs have frequently been covered.
This song is heartbreakingly beautiful.
Johnny99 says
My entry – the late great Jim Ford
duco01 says
“The Sounds of our Time”, the 2007 re-release of Jim Ford’s Harlan County on Bear Family records, including 15 unreleased tracks, is a thing of wonder an an absolute gem of all time.
https://www.discogs.com/Jim-Ford-The-Sounds-Of-Our-Time/release/2412991
retropath2 says
Hardly unknown: his songs sung by others are staples. But he doesn’t often put out his own versions. New record out this week from Dan Penn.
Arthur Cowslip says
Ok, what about David Gates? He was once massive, wasn’t he? I’m not sure whether he’s actually been forgotten about or whether he’s just not trendy (or probably never was, actually). I still love his songs and his voice though, mostly from being hardwired into my brain by repeat listening on family car journeys in the seventies. His songs are a bit soft, I suppose, but at least he’s not trying to be something he’s not.
“If”….
Colin H says
I’m a big fan of Bread – DG, though, is hardly forgotten. I don’t think he was ever ‘cred’ but his songwriting and arranging (the two go together perfectly with him as with few other writers) are masterful. Almost none of his songs are beyond 2 1/2 minutes – certainly not in the Bread era – and yet they feel like fully realised stories with ebbs and flows, tension and release, and denouement – ‘Diary’, ‘Guitar Man’, et al. His one epic in the Bread era was ‘Been too long on the Road’ – a 4 1/2 minute masterpiece.
Feedback_File says
Agree – superlative songwriter and deliverer(?) of songs. Too easily dismissed as soft rock/MOR etc.
Podicle says
A bunch of those early 70s singer-songwriters I sort of bunch together in my mind: Gordon Lightfoot, John Prine etc. They all leave no impression at all on me, as does Jackie Leven, unfortunately. They all craft songs that are impeccably constructed but utterly forgettable.
My nomination for forgotten songwriter would be Harry Nilsson. Even though his two biggest hits were written by others he wrote some great stuff for a few years there in the late 60s and early 70s.
Colin H says
I watched a YouTube clip recently with Gordon Lightfoot walking on to cameo at a fairly recent Kris Kristofferson show. It was painful. Is GL one of those people who don’t know when to gracefully call it a day?
Junior Wells says
Well that would make 2 of them on the one stage.