If You Could Read My Mind
by Gordon Lightfoot
From the album: Sit Down Young Stranger
Track 8 of 11 on Sit Down Young Stranger (1970).
Lyrics for If You Could Read My Mind
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 wishin' 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 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 When you reach the part Where the heartaches come The hero would be me Heroes 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 three way script Enter number two A movie queen to play the scene Of bringing all the good things out in me But for now love, let's be real I never thought I could act 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 feeling'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 The story always ends If you read between the lines You'll know that I'm just trying to understand The feeling 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 feeling's gone and I just can't get it back