GORDON LIGHTFOOT - IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND

IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND

GORDON LIGHTFOOT

SONGWRITHER: GORDON LIGHTFOOT

COUNTRY: CANADA

ALBUM: SIT DOWN YOUNG STRANGER

LABEL: REPRISE RECORDS

GENRE: FOLK ROCK

YEAR: 1970

 

       Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. CC OOnt (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s. He is often referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter and is known internationally as a folk-rock legend.

         Lightfoot's songs, including "For Lovin' Me", "Early Morning Rain", "Steel Rail Blues", "Ribbon of Darkness"—a number one hit on the U.S. country chart with Marty Robbins's cover in 1965—and "Black Day in July," about the 1967 Detroit riot, brought him wide recognition in the 1960s. Canadian chart success with his own recordings began in 1962 with the Nº. 3 hit "(Remember Me) I'm the One", followed by recognition and charting abroad in the 1970s. He topped the US Hot 100 or AC chart with the hits "If You Could Read My Mind" (1970), "Sundown" (1974); "Carefree Highway" (1974), "Rainy Day People" (1975), and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976), and had many other hits that appeared in the top 40.

          Several of Lightfoot's albums achieved gold and multi-platinum status internationally. His songs have been recorded by renowned artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr., The Kingston Trio, Marty Robbins, George Hamilton IV, Jerry Lee Lewis, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Herb Alpert, Harry Belafonte, Scott Walker, Sarah McLachlan, Eric Clapton, John Mellencamp, Jack Jones, Bobby Vee, Roger Whittaker, Tony Rice, Peter, Paul and Mary, Glen Campbell, The Grateful Dead, The Irish Rovers, Nico, Olivia Newton-John and Paul Weller.

       Robbie Robertson of the Band described Lightfoot as "a national treasure". Bob Dylan, also a Lightfoot fan, called him one of his favorite songwriters and, in an often-quoted tribute, Dylan observed that when he heard a Lightfoot song he wished "it would last forever". Lightfoot was a featured musical performer at the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Trent University in Spring 1979 and was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in May 2003. In November 1997, the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, was bestowed on Lightfoot. On February 6, 2012, Lightfoot was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. June of that year saw his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. On June 6, 2015, Lightfoot received an honorary doctorate of music in his hometown of Orillia from Lakehead University.

          "If You Could Read My Mind" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. It reached Nº. 1 on the Canadian Singles Chart on commercial release in 1970 and charted in several other countries on international release in 1971

      Sit Down Young Stranger is Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's sixth original album and also his best-selling original album. It was released in 1970 on the Reprise Records label. The album was renamed If You Could Read My Mind shortly after release, after the song of that title reached number 1 on the RPM Top Singles chart in Canada and number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. The album itself reached number 12 on the Billboard 200 chart. In Canada, the album was on the charts from April 18, 1970, to November 27, 1971. It peaked at number 8 on March 13, 1971 after an earlier peak at number 12 on June 20, 1970. The last 24 weeks were spent in the 90 numbers except for 2 times back up to 88 and once at 100.

If you could read my mind love,

what a tale my thoughts could tell.

Just like an old time movie

about 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 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.

Heroes often fail.

And you won't read that book again

because the endings just to 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 lets 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 feelings 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 about a ghost from a wishing well.

 

In a castle dark or a fortress strong

with chains upon my feet the story always ends.

And if you read between the lines

you'll know that I'm just trying to understand

the feeling that you left.

 

I never thought I could feel this way

and I 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.