It didn't exactly wow critics and fans to begin with but John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band album played the long game: over time, its influence has been felt. The rise of breakup/divorce albums over the course of the seventies and beyond — Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love just to name the most obvious examples — owes more than a little to Lennon's raw nerve lyrics. Then, there's the role it played on barebones, lo-fi releases from Nick Drake's Pink Moon to the largely unlistenable yet still compelling demos of the sick and tortured Daniel Johnston.
Lennon's solo debut isn't often lumped in with the burgeoning singer-songwriter movement of the early seventies. Though not dissimilar, they floated independently of one another. Lennon's openness contrasted with a group of individuals who struggled to express their feelings so directly. Relationships collapsed around them but they were unable or unwilling to dive deep into what caused their breakups. This must read like a criticism but it shouldn't be taken as one. Couples drift apart all the time but the how and/or the why can sometimes be virtually impossible to answer. Lennon was all for getting the truth out there — even if he could still be prone to mythologizing the life he and Yoko Ono had together — but this could be easier said than done when it came to even some of the more accomplished coffeehouse folk singers of the era.
A look at the above photo from the Italian release of "If You Can Read My Mind" (which is nearly identical to the cover of the album Sit Down Young Stranger from the previous year) shows Gordon Lightfoot looking out the window, his appearance tight lipped, concerned but not giving away too much. He looks caught between being a rugged man's man who keeps his issues to himself (and, perhaps, a trusty bottle of vodka) and a more modern day guy who's open with his feelings. In order to keep with the times he is keen to share his inner thoughts but his instinct is to be guarded. Having a song called "If You Could Read My Mind" is practically daring his audience to give it a try.
I first heard "If You Could Read My Mind" while in my late teens. Being used to Neil Tennant's sophisticated wit, Morrissey's outsider meditations, Michael Stipe's irresistible nonsense and Billy Bragg's charmed agitprop, I thought it was absolute dreck. Sure, Lightfoot could sing pretty well and I could even see why people found it so moving but I couldn't get past the old time movies and paperback novels from the drugstore and all that crap. While I would gradually grow to appreciate the song on the whole, these references were remained cringey. Who sings this stuff? And who would write it? Who would even think such shit? Turns out, I do.
I think there are a couple ways of looking at the lyrical quirks in Lightfoot's first RPM number one. First, he's stalling. Rather than being unaware of what divides him and his ex, he actually knows whats up but can't face dealing with it so he invents these roadblocks of ghosts and fallen heroes. He even recognizes what he's up to when he chimes in with the line "but for now love, let's be real". Excuse me, but aren't you the one coming up with all this fanciful stuff in order to avoid having to face up to your responsibilities and you're telling someone else to "be real"?
The other thing going on is a kind of subconscious bullshit. I have looked back on the ruins of failed relationships and thrown out theories as to what went wrong without careful consideration of facts or logic. (If you're going to be a conspiracy theorist make all the crap you conjure up about yourself rather than the outside world) Lightfoot is referencing crummy B movies and crappy romance novels the same way I might quote from Seinfeld or The Simpsons — and he's gone and applied them to his own situation. I don't what these similes are supposed to mean and I'm not sure anyone is — I'm not even convinced that Lightfoot himself could have told you (not that he would have).
Again, this surely reads as if I'm bashing the song and Lightfoot in general but nothing could be further from the truth. I like the fact that he keeps avoiding the topic because that's what I do. We already had Lennon and Dylan and Leonard Cohen to provide mental images that we'd never imagined before, what Lightfoot did better than anyone else was putting into words thoughts that everyone has had before but never sang or wrote about. Some of us can't deal with confrontation and want nothing more than to hide away from it. Other forms of media will lecture me that I should "stand up for myself" but I shouldn't have to. We the meek and mild need a voice of our own. Some will no doubt opt for Jesus but old Gord is saviour enough for me.
"I never thought I could act this way..."
Lightfoot has detoured enough and at last he can get to the point - but only up to a point. He still doesn't know what happened and won't let on what he did wrong. (A second pass at this sort of chorus has him admitting that he "never thought he could feel this way" but I prefer how it comes out the first time; at least there's an attempt at accounting for his actions even if, as ever, he declines to go into detail) A bluntness hangs in the air with the resigned "...but the feeling's gone and I just can't get it back": we've all been there.
Gordon Lightfoot will be back in this blog before long. His remaining RPM chart toppers are both great in their own right with many fans and members of the wider Baby Boom generation preferring one or both of them to this single. (His trio of Canadian number ones is made up of the three songs he remains arguably best remembered for which is a surprisingly rare feat) While I can understand the differing views, I can't possibly agree. "If You Could Read My Mind" not only survives what is on the surface some shaky lyrics but it has also withstood a seemingly endless parade of well-meaning cover versions — and none of them are even all that bad. Yet, topping Lightfoot's skill move of saying so much, expressing so little and still creating an emotional steam engine was always going to be a tough act for him — or anyone else — to follow.
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