Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXXVI--Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind

I've noted a time or two here on Friday Night Jukebox that I pick out the songs for each week years in advance, and every now and again there's an odd coincidence that gives a particular week's song more relevance to me.  For whatever reason (mostly that I've been off work for a year now), I've been playing my guitar (still badly, unfortunately) a lot more these days, and as I perused through old music song books a few weeks back I came across this week's featured tune...and promptly decided to add being able to play "If You Could Read My Mind" on my guitar (easy guitar version--I'd have to live another hundred years to pick it like Gordon Lightfoot) to my bucket list.  What an exciting life I lead!

As I already wrote about Gordon Lightfoot in Vol. LVIII, I'll just note in this week's artist bio paragraph that Lightfoot released his twenty-first studio album in 2020 at the age of 81, and it came fifty-four years after the release of his debut album.  That's a hell of a run, folks.  I'd also like to mention that it is a damn shame that the Canadian Bob Dylan, whose songs and songwriting are widely revered in the music industry, is still not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  What's a poor boy to do?

Fun Fact:  While Lightfoot is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the Songwriting Hall of Fame in 2012 in New York...with Michigan's own Bob Seger.  That's two songwriting heavyweights--both have written a song that would easily br in emaycee's all-time top ten.

"If You Could Read My Mind" was released in 1970 on the album Sit Down Young Stranger (due to the success of the single, the album's title was eventually changed to If You Could Read My Mind, but being the anal-retentive curmudgeon I am, I'm sticking with the original).  The song reached #1 in Lightfoot's native Canada, and #5 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album peaked at #12 in both Canada and the United States.

I could note that "If You Could Read My Mind" features an understated yet heartfelt vocal that carries the song from beginning to end.  I could also note that Lightfoot's gentle acoustic guitar picking and the silky smooth strings that accompany him set a perfect tone for a song about a relationship that's ending.  But in the end, what truly makes the song remarkable is Lightfoot's lyrics, which solely from a craftsmanship standpoint rivals (and I say this without hyperbole) Dylan's "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," Springsteen's "Born to Run," and Seger's "Night Moves."  Lightfoot deftly juxtaposes the relationship's partners (unfortunately for Lightfoot and his first wife, it's about their marriage) with a movie love story, and paints a sad tale of how, unlike movies, real life doesn't always have a happy ending.  I was in my fifties before I realized the true greatness of this week's tune, and I have spent the last several years making up for all the time I lost not listening to it enough.  A stellar offering from an underrated and underappreciated musician.

Lyric Sheet:  (This is one of my favorite sequences ever written in a song) "When you reach the part where the heartaches come/The hero would be me/But heroes often fail/And you won't read that book again/Because the ending's just too hard to take..."

Enjoy:

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Peace,

emaycee