Popdose - Latest Comments in Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

John Jordan — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 15:52:57 -0000

Art Bell used to play this song a lot.. he would sometimes let the whole song play because of how much he loved it. Its haunting feel fit his show perfeftly.. now it seems even more forlorn since Art's death.

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

be — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:29:04 -0000

"Always on my Mind" by Willie Nelson has always given me the creeps. Don't know why...

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

Valerie Magee — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:03:44 -0000

Well, Lightfoot himself noticed it, while working out at his health club, back when Greatest Love of All was played regularly. His song was written first. He sued (the songwriter, not Houston) and the case was settled out of court. It was probably an accidental thing, but there's a whole lot of similarity: several measures. I guess the Lightfoot song got into a lot of people's heads.

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

GHCrosby — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:39:46 -0000

That similarity struck me this past week, with all the Whitney-related news and sound clips. It's great to know someone else (albeit several years ago) noticed it.

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

brian — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:39:14 -0000

i was born in 1971 in canada, and i remember this song well. it's a great song, but fortunately i didn't experience it being played once an hour. it was still on the Big 8 in windsor (probably the most popular AM radio staion in all of canada in the '70s) when i was a kid, but much less frequently played as time went on and they were pretty much done with it by the end of the '70s. they still remained a top 40 station into the early '80s, but was much more adult oriented before changing formats. i only say this because it's not like this song was put on a pedestal on canadian radio, since there was much more canadian content for the stations to play during the '70s. it was a little scary in some ways though as a kid, but so was david bowie's song "fame", as well as david essex' "rock on".

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

breadalbane — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:55:45 -0000

In all fairness to T.B. Patrol, you did say, that as a child, you were trying to get your head around the fact that "The guy singing this song…is a ghost…"

And then you said, "Of course, now that I’m older and understand the concepts of metaphors and similes better, I realize that Gordon Lightfoot is not literally a ghost "

It's not illogical to assume that the point you were trying to make was that you literally thought, as a child, that the song was literally being sung by a ghost. In fact, after I read the article (but before I read the comments) that's what I thought you were trying to get across here, and not that you found the idea of G. Lightfoot *pretending* to be a ghost as spooky.

But hey, let's not quibble here. Anyone who champions Lightfoot's music is okay in my books. And the guy does have knack for music that has a disquieting subtext....

(Although for something scary in an altogether different way, try tracking down the very early (1962) single by "Gord" Lightfoot called "Negotitations". There's a Cold War metaphor in the song that has to be heard to be believed. I don't want to spoil things for you by going any further...)

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

MatthewBolin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:09:18 -0000

And "Carefree Highway"? Actually about the bliss felt after plowing your car through a crowded farmer's market.

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

DwDunphy — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:59:51 -0000

Hey, that's a metaphorical statement, but "The Wreck Of The Edmond Fitzgerald" is totally about a shipful of poor souls taking the ultimate gargle.
And "Sundown" is about a vengeful man threatening his wayward lover. Day-um, Lightfoot is scary all around, isn't he?

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

MatthewBolin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:51:15 -0000

It's the IDEA that he's a ghost that's spooky. It's not that I thought dead people could sing, but the fact it seemed that he was pretending to be a dead person was eerie to a young me.

In addition, to understand that he's not really a ghost wouldn't actually mean you've grasped the metaphor. To do that, you would have to also understand the more complex symbolism of the ghost representing someone who's "dead" in the eyes of the singer's former partner. I don't know many 3 or 4 year olds who would be able to grasp that concept.

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

The Border Patrol — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:53:35 -0000

This song came out when I was three, and got played on Canadian radio approximately once an hour for the next fifteen years. It's a rare song that can stand up to that level of saturation airplay, but "If You Could Read My Mind" does it.

Don't mean to imply anything here, Matt, but even when I was three or four, I got that the song's narrator wasn't really a ghost. Maybe Canadian kids are just naturally better at grasping metaphors?

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

MichaelFortes — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:25:11 -0000

Yeah, yeah, I couldn't be bothered to reference the writing credits. Sue me :)

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

Matt — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:23:06 -0000

Don't you mean by Randy Watson & Sexual Chocolate? ; ) (Yes, I know George Benson wrote it...)

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

MichaelFortes — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:55:16 -0000

What really traumatizes me about this song is how the chorus' chord progression is so similar to "The Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston.

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

Turd Ferguson — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:56:50 -0000

i sympathize completely... an eerie song. i thought its use at the end of the movie 'wonderland' was oddly appropriate.

Re: Spooky Songs: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

WHarrisBullzEye — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:53:58 -0000

Nowadays, I always think of Johnny Cash's version of the song, on his posthumously-released "American V: A Hundred Highways." It gave the "ghost" line a whole new meaning...