If You Could Read My Mind

Written by Gordon Lightfoot Performed by Gordon Lightfoot

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 that 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 the drugstores sell. Then you reached the part Where the heartaches come The hero would be me. But heros 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 threeway script. Enter number two: A movie queen to play the scene Of bringing all the good things out of me. But for now love let's be real. 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 feelin'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. But stories always end And if you read between the lines You'd know that I'm just tryin' to understand The feelin's that you lack. 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 feelin's gone And I just can't get it back.

This came out in fall of 1970 and was the first 45 I ever bought for myself.  I love the music to it, and really love the words.  The imagery of a ghost who cannot understand how he crossed from the realm of the living to the dead is a perfect analogy to the bewilderment and emptiness one feels when they suddenly finds themselves no longer in love with the person they've been with.

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