JOE SOUTH - MIRROR OF YOUR MIND

MIRROR OF YOUR MIND

JOE SOUTH

Songwriter: joe south

Country: u. s. a.

Album: introspect

Label: capitol

Genre: country

Year: 1968

 

         Joe South (born Joseph Alfred Souter; February 28, 1940 – September 5, 2012) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Best known for his songwriting, South won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1970 for "Games People Play" and was again nominated for the award in 1972 for "Rose Garden".

     South had met and was encouraged by Bill Lowery, an Atlanta music publisher and radio personality. He began his recording career in Atlanta with the National Recording Corporation, where he served as staff guitarist along with other NRC artists Ray Stevens and Jerry Reed. South's earliest recordings have been re-released by NRC on CD. He soon returned to Nashville with The Manrando Group and then onto Charlie Wayne Felts Promotions. (Charlie Wayne Felts is the cousin of Rockabilly Hall of Fame Inductee and Grand Ole Opry Member, Narvel Felts.)

           South had his first top 50 hit in July 1958 with a cover version of the b-side of The Big Bopper's hit single Chantilly Lace, a novelty song called "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor". After this South would concentrate mainly on songwriting.

     In 1959, South wrote two songs which were recorded by Gene Vincent: "I Might Have Known", which was on the album Sounds Like Gene Vincent (Capitol Records, 1959), and "Gone Gone Gone", which was included on the album The Crazy Beat of Gene Vincent (Capitol Records, 1963).

      South was also a prominent sideman, playing guitar on Tommy Roe's "Sheila", bass guitar on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde album, and the classic tremolo guitar intro on Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools". South played electric guitar on Simon & Garfunkel's second album, Sounds of Silence, although Al Gorgoni and/or Vinnie Bell feature on the title track.

         Billy Joe Royal recorded five South songs: "Down in the Boondocks" (also covered in 1969 by Penny DeHaven), "I Knew You When", "Yo-Yo" (later a hit for The Osmonds), "Hush" (later a hit for Deep Purple, Somebody's Image with Russell Morris, and Kula Shaker), and "Rose Garden" (see below).

              Responding to late 1960s issues, South's style changed radically, most evident in his biggest single, 1969's pungent, no-nonsense "Games People Play" (purportedly inspired by Eric Berne's book of the same name), a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Accompanied by a lush string sound, an organ, and brass, the production won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Song and the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. South followed up with "Birds of a Feather" (originally "Bubbled Under" at Nº106 on February 10–17, 1968, more successful as a cover by The Raiders that peaked on the Hot 100 at Nº23 on October 23–30, 1971) and two other soul-searchers, the back-to-nature "Don't It Make You Want to Go Home" (also covered eight months later by Brook Benton With The Dixie Flyers) and the socially provocative "Walk a Mile in My Shoes" (also covered by Elvis Presley in a Las Vegas era version, Bryan Ferry, and Coldcut).

     South's most commercially successful composition was Lynn Anderson's 1971 country/pop monster hit "Rose Garden", which was a hit in 16 countries worldwide. Anderson won a Grammy Award for her vocals, and South earned two Grammy nominations for it, as Best Country Song and (general) Song of the Year. South wrote more hits for Anderson, such as "How Can I Unlove You" (Billboard Country Nº1) and "Fool Me" (Billboard Country Nº3). Freddy Weller, Jeannie C. Riley, and Penny DeHaven also had hits on the Billboard country chart with South songs. In addition, other artists who have recorded South-penned songs include Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, Loretta Lynn, Carol Burnett, Andy Williams, Kitty Wells, Dottie West, Jim Nabors, Arlen Roth, Liz Anderson, The Georgia Satellites, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Ike & Tina Turner, Hank Williams Jr., James Taylor, the Tams, and k. d. lang, although most covered versions of South's best known songs.

Who's that fool lookin' back at you

In the mirror of your mind?

Could it be the one you see

Whose name you've often signed?

Can you place the familiar face

You thought you left behind?

 

Take a real good look

In the mirror of your mind

Take a real good look

In the mirror of your mind, alright

 

Mm, my, my, my, ooh

Who's that clown bringin' you down

In the mirror of your mind?

Who's the one, that son of a gun

Who treats you so unkind?

Open your eyes and realize

How long you have been blind

 

Take a real good look

In the mirror of your mind

Take a real good look

In the mirror of your mind, mm

 

And realize that beauty lies

In the eyes of the beholder

And nobody's out to do you any harm

No, no, no, no

You can't go on just cryin' on

Somebody else's shoulder

When the helpin' hand is on the other end

Of your own arm, oh yeah

 

Now wait a minute, I wonder can you get to this

Now listen

Things in all directions are only your reflections

Everywhere you go you've got to reap just what you sow

All the world about you, within you and without you

Things that you have hated

They're the things that you created, now

 

Ah, yes

Alright, wait

 

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Who's the saddest one of all?

Mirror, mirror in my mind

Won't you, won't you help me find the truth?

 

I'd give everything I own to find the truth

Who I am and what I'm doin'

What I am and why?

Everything I touch I ruin

I don't know why I try

 

Keep lookin' for the truth

Now, won't you, won't you, won't you help me find the truth?

People tell me "Come join the crowd

I think we found the way"

But what they are shouts so loud

That I can't hear what they say

I'm talkin' 'bout the truth

 

Where in the world do you go to find the truth?

Seems I heard somebody mention

I don't know where or when

Switch a little part of your attention

From the outside to within

 

Who's that fool lookin' back at you

In the mirror of your mind?

I wanna know

Could it be the one you see

Whose name you've often signed?

Can you place the familiar face

You thought you left behind?

 

Take a real good look

In the mirror of your mind

Take a darn good look

In the mirror of your mind

Come on now, look

In the mirror in my mind

Won't you, won't you help me find the truth, now

In the mirror of my mind

Oh, whoa I don't mind

Take a look in the mirror, now

Take a look in the mirror, now

Take a look in the mirror, now

Whoa oh oh.