Did She Mention My Name/Back Here On Earth (Beat Goes On)

His 1968 third United Artists label release, 'Did She Mention My Name,' was produced in New York by John Simon, who had previously produced Leonard Cohen and the Band. The songs include a commentary on the 1967 Detroit riots, Black Day In July. Late in '68, Lightfoot returned to Nashville for the more acoustic sound of his fourth UA album, 'Back Here On Earth'. The 24 tracks here present the entirety of Lightfoot's third and fourth albums plus the New York remake of Spin, Spin. Other Lightfoot classics on this set include Does Your Mother Know, Bitter Green, The Mountains And Maryann, and I Want To Hear It From You.

Lightfoot's romanticism has always been his trump. He captures wanderlust, love's longing, and unfulfilled dreams as well as any songwriter of his generation. And though it's tempting to call him a confessionalist, his best songs have a timeless folk quality, making them certain hits for artists like Marty Robbins and Peter, Paul & Mary, as well as near standards in bluegrass circles. This 1968 album finds him experimenting with a slightly bigger sound and offering his strongest political tune "Black Day in July" and the whistful "Mountains and Marian," not to mention the title cut, recorded memorably by Frank Christian and J. D. Crowe and the New South. --Roy Francis Kasten