Gordon Lightfoot: "If You Could Read My Mind" (1979 Soundstage Chicago)

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. CC, OOnt (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 70s. He has been referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter and, internationally, as a folk-rock legend.

His compositions, including "For Lovin' Me", "Early Morning Rain", "Steel Rail Blues" and "Ribbon of Darkness" (which hit Number 1 in the US with Marty Robbins's cover in 1965), brought him international recognition in the 1960s. He also experienced chart success in Canada with his own recordings, beginning in 1962 with the Number 3 hit "(Remember Me) I'm the One". His recordings then made their own impact on the international music charts in the 1970s, with original songs such as "If You Could Read My Mind" (1970) (Number 5 in the US), "Sundown" (1974), "Carefree Highway" (1974), "Rainy Day People" (1975), (all hitting Number 1) and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976) (hitting Number 2). Some of his albums have achieved gold and multi-platinum status internationally, and his songs have been recorded by some of the world's most renowned recording artists, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr., The Kingston Trio, Marty Robbins, George Hamilton IV, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Viola Wills, Richie Havens, The Dandy Warhols, Harry Belafonte, Tony Rice, Sandy Denny (with Fotheringay), The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, Scott Walker, Sarah McLachlan, John Mellencamp, Toby Keith, Peter, Paul and Mary, Glen Campbell, Anne Murray, and Olivia Newton-John..

- 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'm 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 that drugstores sell
When you reach the part where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
And 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
And 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
The story always ends
I never knew 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