Gordon Lightfoot - Albums - If You Could Read My Mind


If You Could Read My Mind, 1970 Warner Bros. Records
	Cover:	Songs: 01. Minstrel Of The Dawn 02. Me And Bobby McGee 03. Approaching Lavender 04. Saturday Clothes 05. Cobwebs & Dust 06. Poor Little Allison 07. Sit Down Young Stranger 08. If You Could Read My Mind 09. Baby It's Allright 10. Your Love's Return 11. The Pony Man




	Album review: Renamed If You Could Read My Mind after that track's Top Five success, Sit Down Young Stranger provided Gordon Lightfoot with his first commercial success as a performer. Augmenting his basic trio with musical luminaries and labelmates like Ry Cooder, John Sebastian and Van Dyke Parks, and with string arrangements by Nick DeCaro and Randy Newman, Lightfoot produced an album filled with attractive, folky melodies. The title track told the tale of a draft resister gone to Canada without resorting to polemics. The rest of Lightfoot's original lyrics were much more personal. The one non-original was the first cover of Kris Kristofferson's soon-to-be-classic "Me and Bobby McGee" to be issued. Meanwhile, "If You Could Read My Mind" was ubiquitous in the early months of 1971, launching Lightfoot on a six-year run of popularity. While future albums would begin to drift away from the folky acoustic timbres of this one (there are no drums to be found here), the beauty and simplicity of Sit Down Young Stranger make it a timeless recording. -- Jim Newsom, All-Music Guide



	Gordon Lightfoot - Guitar, Piano, Vocals Ry Cooder - Guitar Van Dyke Parks - Harmonica John Sebastian - Guitar, Harmonica Richard Haynes - Bass Red Shea - Guitar



	Notes: If You Could Read My Mind, released in April of 1970, was the album that established singer/songwriter Gordon LIghtfoot as a world classs artist. Featuring the smash hit title track, the album also highlighted nine other Lightfoot originals and the first recorded version of Kris Kristofferson's "Me And Bobby McGee", later a hit for Janis Joplin. Canadian born, Gordon Lightfoot relocated to Los Angeles in the late 50s. There he established a reputation as a gifted and versatile songwriter, vocal arranger and instrumentalist. By mid-60s, a wide range of recording stars were covering his material, including Johnny Cash, Harry Belafonte, Judy Collins, Waylon Jennings and Peter, Paul & Mary, for whom he wrote "Early Mornin' Rain". Lightfoot himself became a rising star in the folk world, performing regularly in Toronto coffee houses and working with Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs and Ian & Sylvia. Lightfoot released his first album in 1966. Four more followed before he signed to Reprise Records in 1970 and recorded If You Could Read My Mind, an album that helped bridge the gap between folk and pop music. Produced by Lenny Waronker and Joe Wissert, the album also contains such Lightfoot classics as "Sit Down Young Stranger" and "Minstrel of the Dawn". Within two months of its releaseIf You Could Read My Mind had sold over one million copies worldwide.



	(c)1970 Warner Bros. Records Inc. Produced by Joe Wissert and Lenny Waronker Engineers: Recording-Gary Brandt Recording & Mixing: Lee Hershberg CDD Pre-Mastering by WCI Record Group Design & Photography by Tom Wilkes & Barry Feinstein for Camouflage Productions Personnel: Gordon Lightfoot - Guitar Red Shea - Guitar Rick Haynes - Bass

If You Could Read My Mind, 1970 Warner Bros. Records

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