Gordon Lightfoot – Lightfoot! album art

Lightfoot! is the debut album by Gordon Lightfoot, released in January 1966 by United Artists Records. It features several of his best-known songs, “Early Mornin’ Rain”, “I’m Not Sayin’”, “Ribbon of Darkness”, and a rendition of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Ewan MacColl.

The cover photography by Barry Feinstein shows the Canadian singer-songwriter with his guitar, sitting on a chair. The typeface is a rare bird: the bold all-caps grotesque with shadow was designed by German-born British designer F.H.K. Henrion (1914–1990). It’s similar to the classic Sans Surryphs Shaded a.k.a. Thorowgood Sans Shaded, but with genuine qualities. Two styles were issued by Letraset as Weight (solid with open shade) and Style (open with solid shade) around 1960, before the company launched their dry transfer lettering range. Photo-Lettering, Inc. also carried two styles, Henrion Weight (solid with open shade) and Henrion Clear (open with open shade), plus a variant without shade, Henrion Light Caps. Since this album is from New York, we are probably looking at PLINC’s version, filled with green and blue.

Gordon Lightfoot helped “to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s” [Songwriters Hall of Fame]. He died this week at the age of 84, see the obituaries by the CBC and the New York Times. RIP.

[More info on Discogs]