Thanks to AM radio, I can recall a steady string of Gordon Lightfoot hits played throughout the 60s and 70s. Although I saw it as nice background music, it wasn’t until I heard one song in particular in 1970, that I really started paying attention to his music.
All through my impressionable teenage years, this song would pop up, and I grew to love it for its sincere heartfelt (heartbreaking) poetry, especially after I started writing myself.
Off the album, Sit Down Young Stranger (1970), If You Could Read My Mind, has continued to shine as one of Lightfoot’s greatest, and since been recorded by many others.
Although there is a good live version of this song on YouTube, I opted for the studio version, due to the strings accompaniment, which really help bring out the tragedy of the lyrics.
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 am a ghost, 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 drugstore sells
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'd 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 trying 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 feeling's gone
And I just can't get it back
