Back Here On Earth is Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...

's fourth studio album, released in 1968 on the United Artists

United Artists Records

United Artists Records was a record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 initially to distribute records of its movie soundtracks, though it soon branched out into recording music of a number of different genres.-History:...

 label.

Apart from his eponymous debut album

Lightfoot!

-External links:*...

, it is Lightfoot's only studio album not to derive its title from a song on the album. Back Here on Earth was Lightfoot's last studio recording on the United Artists label which he left after releasing the live album, Sunday Concert

Sunday Concert

Sunday Concert is Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's fifth album, released in 1969 on the United Artists label. It was Lightfoot's first live album and until the release of a live DVD in 2002, remained Lightfoot's only officially released live recording...

, in 1969.

Reception

In his Allmusic review, critic Richie Unterberger

Richie Unterberger

Richie Unterberger is a US author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.-Life and writing:Having worked as a DJ at WXPN in Philadelphia, he started reviewing records for Op magazine in 1983...

 wrote of the album "It's not quite as outstanding as his first three albums, lacking highlights on the order of "Early Mornin' Rain" or "Black Day in July." Lightfoot never offered weak material on his United Artists efforts, however, and Back Here on Earth is still a very solid set, certainly worth acquiring if you like his other LPs for this label."

Track listing

All compositions by Gordon Lightfoot.

1. "Long Way Back Home" – 3:02
2. "Unsettled Ways" – 1:51
3. "Long Thin Dawn" – 2:57
4. "Bitter Green
   Bitter Green
   "Bitter Green" is a song by Gordon Lightfoot, first released in 1968 on his album Back Here on Earth. The single reached #44 in Canada.Lightfoot also included the song on his 1969 live album Sunday Concert, and recorded a second studio version for his 1975 compilation album Gord's Gold. A cover...
   
   " – 2:42
5. "The Circle Is Small" – 3:26
6. "Marie Christine" – 2:54
7. "Cold Hands From New York" – 5:16
8. "Affair on 8th Avenue" – 3:25
9. "Don't Beat Me Down" – 3:16
10. "The Gypsy" – 2:45
11. "If I Could" – 4:02

Personnel

• Gordon Lightfoot - 6 & 12 string acoustic guitar
  Acoustic guitar
  An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
  
  
• Red Shea - Lead acoustic guitar
  Acoustic guitar
  An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
  
  
• John Stockfish - Bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  

External links

• Album lyrics and chords