♫ If You Could Read My Mind ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music, Social commentary

Today’s song is brought to you courtesy of our friend Keith, who planted numerous earworms yesterday with his fun post titled, “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then – an encore post”.  Check it out if you haven’t already seen it!  And now, for today’s offering …

Written by Lightfoot and released in 1970, this song was inspired by the breakup of his first marriage.  In the liner notes of his boxed set Songbook, he describes it as “A song about the failure of marriage.”

At the request of his daughter, Ingrid, he performs the lyrics with a slight change now: the line “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that you lack” is altered to “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that we lack.” He has said in an interview that the difficulty with writing songs inspired by personal stories is that there is not always the emotional distance and clarity to make lyrical improvements such as the one his daughter suggested.

In 1987 Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against the composer of Whitney Houston’s hit The Greatest Love of All, Michael Masser, alleging plagiarism of 24 bars of If You Could Read My Mind; the transitional section that begins “I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow” of the Masser song has the same melody as “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 feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back” of Lightfoot’s song. Lightfoot has stated that he dropped the lawsuit when he felt it was having a negative effect on the singer Houston, as the lawsuit was about the writer and not her. He also said that he didn’t want people thinking that he had stolen his melody from Masser. The case was settled out of court and Masser issued a public apology.

The song reached #1 in both Canada and the U.S., and #30 in the UK.

If You Could Read My Mind
Gordon Lightfoot

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 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 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 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’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

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
If You Could Read My Mind lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

21 thoughts on “♫ If You Could Read My Mind ♫ (Redux)”

  1. Jill, thanks for the shout out. This is one of Lightfoot’s best in a long list of well-worded songs. He is indeed the “minstrel of the dawn,” from another one of his great songs. We were fortunate to see him perform and we loved the stories in-between his songs. His songs have been covered by Elvis, Peter Paul and Mary among others. Keith

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    • My pleasure … you were the one, after all, who planted the earworm! And another, Jim Croce’s “Operator”, but I played that in the last 2 years, so not time for a redux yet. 😦 I do love this one of Lightfoot’s, though … and I would have loved to have been with you and your wife to see him in person and hear the stories.

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  4. I don’t understand about musicians suing each other over a string of notes, there are only so many notes to choose from. I cannot write music, so maybe if I could it might be more meaningful to me. It just seems so petty.
    I am not going to say anything about changing words in songs that were written in a totally different social era. You can’t recall records like you can recall a car with a faulty part. But it is nice if you can update it.

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    • I can see both sides. You’re right … there are only so many notes and combinations, but … if I wrote a poem, had it published, then somebody else wrote a poem and used part of my work, I would not be happy. But, I won’t ever have to worry about that, for I can’t write poetry or music or much of anything!

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      • Humans are very territorial. To me, art is for everyone. So, on one hand, I could be upset if I I created something then found out someone else was claiming it as their own. But really, if the other person is reaching a larger audience, isn’t that the better outcome?
        I’m not looking for fame and fortune. Many years ago I wrote the line: “Ne’er shall I a great feast cook.” So, if someone else wants to cook a feast using my recipes, let them.

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  7. I was a teenie tiny little girl when I head this song for the first time. Prolly on my sisters radio. Loved it immediately. Nowadays I know why: Melody, voice, the acoustic guitars, the string arrangement and the whole production. It all fell into the right places in this song. As a Gerwoman I couldn’t care less about the lyrics, knowing they wouldn’t be stupid either.
    Just last year I learned who sang it.

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    • I’m like you, I don’t often judge a song based on the lyrics. Being nearly deaf, I rarely know what the lyrics of a song even are until I decide to do a post about it. But I judge by the sound, the artist’s voice, the instrumentation … and just whether it makes me happy or not! I’m glad you liked this one!

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