Gordon Lightfoot
If You Could Read My Mind

THE REVIEW

1970: Gordon Lightfoot can already boast four studio albums, and what albums I must say, a masterpiece, a great record, and two excellent ones, but in that year something happens: the first album of unreleased songs released for Reprise Records marks the beginning of a long and hugely successful collaboration with producer Lenny Waronker; a stable core of musicians begins to form around Lightfoot, and the "acoustic" phase of his career comes to a definitive end. Thus begins a new cycle, six legendary years inaugurated by this album, originally titled "Sit Down Young Stranger," later renamed "If You Could Read My Mind" following the great success of the song of the same name.

"If You Could Read My Mind" is a turning point in the career of the Toronto singer-songwriter: the first major hit, which will make him an icon in his homeland and introduce him to neighboring USA (unfortunately elsewhere Gordon Lightfoot will never achieve the fame and recognition he deserved): it's a true instant classic, a ballad in which the traditional acoustic guitar is complemented by a suggestive string arrangement that gives the melody an emotional thrust worthy of an Oscar-winning soundtrack, but this song is not the most suitable to represent the album as a whole: the 60's roots have not been forgotten at all; this is an album with rather "low" tones, such as "Minstrel Of The Dawn" and "Your Love's Return (Song For Stephen Foster)," where the strings intervene more gently compared to the title track, creating soft and dreamy scenarios. In a more strictly acoustic vein fall the epic rendition of Kris Kristofferson's "Me And Bobby McGee," the light "Saturday Clothes," with a retro and elegantly almost indolent atmosphere, and "Cobwebs And Dust," a sparse and melancholic waltz where a man bids farewell to his homeland, while "Approaching Lavender" and especially the oriental-flavored "Baby It's Alright" experiment with a more troubled and almost dark sound, adding interesting shades to this wonderful album, where two jewels particularly shine, two of the greatest masterpieces of this singer-songwriter: the first is the dethroned title track, "Sit Down Young Stranger," the most essential, most instrumentally sparse song of the album, and above all the most moving: a guitar & voice ballad of rare beauty, a stream of consciousness, a gentle and emotional outburst, one of those that makes your throat tighten, and the second is "The Pony Man," which aside from the use of harmonica does not differ much from "Sit Down Young Stranger" in style and musicality, it is also very intimate and personal, but in an almost opposite way: it is a country story, an apparently ordinary situation, which to a child's enchanted eyes becomes a fantastic vision, a dream that comes to life, set to music by the adult Gordon Lightfoot to ensure this album a closing that won't be forgotten.

Technically and stylistically speaking, this record, whatever you want to call it, remains a work of transition; in the years to come, more vibrant, more electric, and if you want more modern and creative albums will follow, but it has extraordinary charm, it is Gordon Lightfoot's second great masterpiece, which finds its beauty in its mild and gentle character, in its perfect balance and in the succession of styles, sensations and atmospheres that chase each other in a harmonious round dance. It is a perfect manifesto for this artist and an ideal starting point to deepen his knowledge.