It’s certainly one of his most personal songs, about the breakup of his marriage, and he said it came to him one summer while languishing in his empty house in Toronto. It has also become one of the most covered numbers in popular music history, including recordings by Johnny Cash, Barbra Streisand, Don McLean, Olivia Newton-John, Petula Clark, Kenny Rogers, Liza Minnelli, etc.…then there are the disco versions.
Born in Orillia, near Ontario’s Lake Simcoe in 1938 and long hailed as Canada’s greatest songwriter, Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a man who has remained true to his Canadian roots, residing there to this day. In a career spanning over half a century, and despite nearly dying from an abdominal aortic aneurysm in 2002 that left him in a coma for six weeks, he has released dozens of albums and still continues to perform.
Although many a young wanderer shivering “cold on the shoulder” in “the early morning rain” on a not-so “carefree highway,” has Gordon Lightfoot to thank for that abiding tune strumming through his or her head, this, his first recording to appear on the Billboard Charts, was very much a surprise hit.
First included on his 1970 album, “Sit Down Young Stranger” it reached Number 5 in the US, Number 30 in the UK and was his first Number 1 hit in Canada. Recognizing an opportunity, the record label quickly made it the album’s cover song, and the LP was, of course, renamed to… “If You Could Read My Mind”
LISTEN TO THIS SELECTION – Monday 14 January
If You Could Read My Mind
If you could read my mind, love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
‘Bout a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost that you can’t see
If I could read your mind, love
What a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
The kind the drugstores sell
When you reach the part where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
But heroes often fail
And you won’t read that book again
Because the ending’s just too hard to take
I walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three-way script
Enter number two:
A movie queen to play the scene
Of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now, love, let’s be real
I never thought I could act this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feeling’s gone
And I just can’t get it back
If you could read my mind, love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
‘Bout a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
But stories always end
And if you read between the lines
You’ll know that I’m just tryin’ to understand
The feelings that you lack
I never thought I could feel this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feelings gone
And I just can’t get it back
