“If You Could Read My Mind” by Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023) was a Canadian singer who just passed away, at the age of 84, the day before the writing of this post. Considering his age, i.e. the fact that he was born back in 1938, Lightfoot’s musical heyday was actually during the 1970s, an era when folk music, which was his specialty, was more en vogue. 

It was during that time, in April of 1970, that “If You Could Read My Mind” was relayed, through Reprise Records, as part of “Sit Down Young Stranger”, Gordon’s first studio album of that decade. 

Lightfoot wrote this song himself, and its producers are American musicians Joe Wissert and Lenny Waronker. And interesting to note is that some years down the line Gordon successfully sued, in a manner of speaking, Michael Masser (1941-2015) – i.e. the main composer behind Whitney Houston’s classic “Greatest Love of All” (1986) – for unscrupulously copying part of the melody of “If You Could Read My Mind” onto Whitney’s track.

Success

“Sit Down Young Stranger” stands as one of Gordon Lightfoot’s biggest commercial successes. And this song, serving as the project’s third and final single, contributed to the cause in that it also marks one of the singer’s biggest hits, reaching the pinnacle of Canada Top Singles and the US Easy Listening chart, in addition to peaking at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. In fact Reprise Records proceeded to rename the aforementioned album after this song once the track blew up.

Moreover, later on in 1998, a multi-national act known as Stars on 54 also did well with their own rendition of “If You Could Read My Mind”. 

Amongst the plethora of other artists who have formally covered this song is the late Johnny Cash (1932-2003), as featured on posthumous outing “American V: A Hundred Highways” (2006).  

Upon the passing of Lightfoot, Billy Joel offered his own take on this piece, which is obviously considered Gordon’s signature song, in memory of the singer.

“If You Could Read My Mind” also made its way onto quite a few well-known TV shows, including Mr. Robot (2017), Family Guy (2020) and Doom Patrol (2020), as well as movies such as Gremlins 2 (1990) and Licorice Pizza (2021).

Lyrics of “If You Could Read My Mind”

Before Taylor Swift, there were the likes of Gordon Lightfoot incorporating his personal romantic life into his music. And in this case, it is well known that “If You Could Read My Mind” was inspired by his eventual divorce from Brita Ingegard Olaisson, whom the singer was married to from 1963 to 1973. 

And perhaps it can be said that sometimes, such as in this case, such separations are complicated matters, in terms of what actually caused the demise of the relationship.

Well actually, Gordon did reportedly admit that it was his own infidelity which caused things to fall apart.  And that reality perspective can be sorta gleaned from the lyrics. But more honestly interpreted, the wording of this song reads like the ruminations of a vocalist who has decided to dump the addressee but is trying to make it concurrently sound as if things had more or less naturally run their course between the two of them.

So as far as the title goes, what Gordon is looking for is empathy, going both ways actually, i.e. the addressee being able to read his mind and vice versa. But he seems to more or less admit that he’s the bad guy in this equation, presenting himself as a “hero” for example, albeit one who has ‘failed’ at the task at hand, which would have presumably been remaining faithful to his wife.

“When you reach the part, where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
But heroes often fail”

So going back to the day and age in which this track was dropped, during an era where the likes of Bob Dylan were ruling the musical landscape, we can conclude by saying that “If You Could Read My Mind” is largely subject to listener interpretation. 

Or let’s say that it’s a song in which the sentiment is more important than the logic of the lyrics. That is to say that by and large, it’s difficult to pin down exactly what Lightfoot is saying. But by the time all is said and done the vocalist does firmly imply that – for lack of a more concise way of putting it – he reached a point where he lost interest in the relationship at hand. 

And perhaps the reason this piece proved so analogous is because that would be a difficult thing for a spouse especially to just come out and say.