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Back Here on Earth

1968 studio album by Gordon Lightfoot

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ2878368 ↗
Source-derived summary

Back Here On Earth is Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's fourth studio album, released in 1968 on the United Artists label.

Apart from his eponymous debut album and final album (Solo), 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 in 1969.

Bear Family Records reissued Lightfoot's previous album, Did She Mention My Name, together with this album, Back Here on Earth, as a 2-in-1 CD in 1993. It included as a bonus track a recording of "Spin, Spin" which did not appear on any of Lightfoot's original studio albums, though a John Court production of it was released as a single in 1966. The version on the Bear Family Records reissue is tagged (New York remake version) and was produced by John Simon.

Reception

In his Allmusic review, critic Richie Unterberger 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 songs written by Gordon Lightfoot.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Back Here on Earth” is 1968 studio album by Gordon Lightfoot. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Back, Here and Earth, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1968, 1969, 1993, 1966—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1968-11. For this dossier, Back, Here and Earth is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1968 studio album by Gordon Lightfoot” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2878368. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968, 1969, 1993 and 1966.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Back Here on Earth”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Back Here on Earth primary sources, Back Here on Earth archive and Back research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Back Here on Earth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.