Gordon Lightfoot - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Lyrics

I've got most of Gords albums-but this great Dylan song does not appear n any of them.L've often wondered why.

i'm in the minority here, but i like it! lol

I just read 'Lightfoot,' the new biography released in Nov. 2017, and recommend it. United Artists didn't know at first what to do with Gordon Lightfoot, neither did his manager Albert Grossman, who also managed Bob Dylan. Although Lightfoot's songs had been hits as early as 1963-65 for a host of artists--Johnny Cash, Peter, Paul and Mary, Marty Robbins, George Hamilton IV and others, his first LP was in the can an Grossman wasn't able to get a big label to jump on it. Gordon recorded it with just acoustic guitars and bass, no drums. This single, not on the album, was an outlier, being a cover and testing the waters with pop production of Dylan's folk-rock classic, with a producer mucking things up. Gordon did what he was told, just hoping to take off South of the Canadian border. Warner Bros. passed on the album, so finally United Artists, which was mainly a movie soundtrack label, released his album in 1966, recorded in 1965. By then the folk boom was passing. Dylan had gone electric, Peter, Paul and Mary were largely off the charts, the Kington Trio were history. UA got little traction in the U.S. with his great LPs in the 60s, even when producers in New York or LA tried jazz or pop influences, horns, strings, country sounds. When he left and went to Warner Bros. in 1970, he wrote and played the way he wanted, adding drums when he wanted, with a more authentic sound. I still recommend all his United Artists LPs, especially the first one, 'Lightfoot!,' 'Back Here on Earth,' and to a lesser degree, 'The Way I Feel,' although the re-recording of that title track is a standout from that era, with a backwards guitar tape and other great effects.

Didn't hear from you since years! anyway WELCOME BACK!

I like Gordon Lightfoot and love this song, but this version is absolutely appalling.

I'm a big Lightfoot fan, but my goodness, those horns and background vocals are terrible, and I don't like the way he sings it either. It's like he doesn't get it at all. Yet I'm sure he did get it, and he could have done it so much better. That opening squall of horns actually hurt my ears!

That's why he didn't do something like that again!

I'm sure that's also why he did not include the song on his box set, in spite of its historical significance. I think he actually played this one on TV when it was released as a single.

This is one of those songs that Gordie regretted recording and the other was "Black Day In July" I have no idea why? RockinRonny a true Canadian and a Lightfoot fan.

I like the brass

I hadn't heard this version before. Great song, Jennifer Warnes does this on her self titled l.p from about 1970 I am guessing, and Nina Simone does my favourite non-Dylan '66 version. Nice to find a Canadian cover of this brilliant song.

this is god awful

my favourite song done by him . very rare , I even have the 45 that I bought when I was 13 in 1965.

TADA JE I BILO MUZKE..

A SADA KRAJ

Oh, this  was a bad idea all around! Totally inappropriate Vegas arrangement and production -- and the key sounds too high for poor Gord's range..

This is good stuff, thanks for sharing!

Thanks. What's the movie trailer running in the background?

Welcome T.U.T and as for the movies in my video I prefer to use not quite known or rather old movies (Sometimes silent movies) not to distract the attention(( it's the song meaning not the movie )) anyway I think you'd pay a visit to my little channel to subscribe and check the music ..... W E L C O M E !

I believe it is the Trip with Peter Fonda

Doesn't sound like G. Lightfoot of the later years very much.

Of course and I'm uploading videos only for songs not available on the Youtube or over the internet or version of the song not know or bootleg ! just to give something old and new ! E N J O Y  !

well, I just had to come back to hear this one more time.  Thank you for pointing out the horns... I guess that is a guy thing... never would have noticed.  My 9 yr grand son wants to learn sax. and we have no idea what inspired him?  The girls all play piano and one plays the oboe.  lol Well, Bob Dylan wrote this song 1965.  Just about the time Gordon Lightfoot was getting started with his career.  But, when exactly did Lightfoot sing this song... I'm still a wee bit confused.  Dylan says performers must decide if they wish to make a fortune or if fame is all they need.  Fortune is the forever thing perhaps that keeps them going till the day they die.  And somewhere in there comes renoun?  Is that where they help others get started?

@Dino Slaughter I'll check it!

@attaremad Amazon has it for under $14.00 through Import CD, unless you can locate a cheaper source.  

@attaremad By the way, I like the way you married the video to the song.....very effective.   

@Dino Slaughter You're giving me a MEDAL! T H A N K S !

+Linda Spontak I first heard Lightfoot sing it September 1965 on Toronto radio stations.

lol I need time to let this one sink in... totally unexpectd... hardly listented to Dylan until quite recently.  Own(?) - lol - maybe 2 of his albums and a CD... which means I did like him... just never understood him that much.  A legend for sure. TY for posting Tom Thumb's Blues... and I do believe it was GL singing it... lol  I see over there ---> Linda Ronstadt sang this song as well?  Apparently a Dylan song favored by the elite crowd.  :D

Yes Lightfoot with all that Saxophones and trumpets .. etc !

it all sounds better than Dylan's quiet version I think. RockinRonny