Lyrics for singles by Gordon Lightfoot
If You Could Read My Mind
Sundown
Carefree Highway
Rainy Day People
The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
If you could read my mind love
what a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
about a ghost from a wishing 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 that you can see
If I could read your mind love
what a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
the kind the drugstore sells
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 endings just to hard to take
I 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 lets 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 feelings 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 about a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
with chains upon my feet the story always ends
And if you read between the lines
you'll know that I'm just trying to understand
the feeling that you left
I never thought I could feel this way
and I got to say that I just don't get it
I don't know where we went wrong
but the feelings gone
and I just can't get it back
I can see her lyin' back in her satin dress
In a room where you do what you don't confess
Sundown you better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sundown you better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
She's bin lookin' like a queen in a sailor's dream
And she don't always say what she really means
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
I can picture every move that a man could make
Getting lost in her lovin' is your first mistake
Sundown you better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it's a sin
When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin again
I can see her lookin' fast in her faded jeans
She's a hard lovin' woman, got me feelin' mean
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
Sundown you better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sundown you better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it's a sin
When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin' again
Pickin' up the pieces of my sweet shattered dream
I wonder how the old folks are tonight
Her name was Ann and I'll be damned if I recall her face
She left me not knowin' what to do
Carefree highway, let me slip away on you
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin' after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you
Turnin' back the pages to the times I love best
I wonder if she'll ever do the same
Now the thing that I call livin' is just bein' satisfied
With knowin' I got no one left to blame
Carefree highway, got ta see you my old flame
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin' after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you
Searchin' through the fragments of my dream-shattered sleep
I wonder if the years have closed her mind
I guess it must be wanderlust or tryin' to get free
From the good old faithful feelin' we once knew
Carefree highway, let me slip away on you
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin' after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you
Let me slip away on you
Carefree highway, got ta see you my old flame
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin' after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you
Rainy day people always seem to know when it's time to call
Rainy day people don't talk
they just listen till they've heard it all
Rainy day lovers don't lie when they tell you
they've been down like you
Rainy day people don't mind if you're cryin' a tear or two
If you get lonely, all you really need is that rainy day love
Rainy day people all know there's no sorrow
they can't rise above
Rainy day lovers don't love any others
that would not be kind
Rainy day people all know how it hangs
on their peace of mind
(Lead break)
Rainy day lovers don't lie when they tell you
they've been down there, too
Rainy day people don't mind if you're cryin' a tear or two
Rainy day people always seem to know
when you're feelin' blue
I steps and stutters around in the gutters
sometimes need one, too
Take it or leave it or try to believe it
f you've been down too long
Rainy day lovers don't hide love inside, they just pass it on
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
T'was the witch of November come stealin'
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the Gales of November came slashin'
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya
At Seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it's been good t'know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
May have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the Gales of November remembered
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early