Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind

IMDb RATING

7.8/10

722

YOUR RATING

Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind (2019)

With unprecedented access to the artist, directors Martha Kehoe and Joan Tosoni chart Gordon Lightfoot's profound evolution from Christian choirboy to troubled troubadour, international star and beloved Canadian icon with 5 Grammy Nominations and over 10 million albums sold.

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3 Videos

14 Photos

Biography Documentary Music

The iconic Canadian musician, Gordon Lightfoot, reflects on his life and career.The iconic Canadian musician, Gordon Lightfoot, reflects on his life and career.The iconic Canadian musician, Gordon Lightfoot, reflects on his life and career.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.8/10

722

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 5 nominations total

Trivia
Numerous musicians are interviewed in the film to provide their thoughts on Gordon Lightfoot, those musicians including Sarah McLachlan, Geddy Lee (of Rush), Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Tom Cochrane, Anne Murray, Ian Tyson, Sylvia Tyson, Murray McLauchlan, and Greg Graffin (of Bad Religion). Archive footage of other musicians, such as Bob Dylan, talking about Lightfoot is also included.

Goofs
When Murray McLachlan is describing the apartment building in Toronto on Alexander Street, where Gord was living at the time, he said the apartment building was round like the old Decca Records building in L.A. The round building in L.A. is actually The Capitol Records building on Vine Street in Hollywood.

Connections
References Harry Tracy: The Last of the Wild Bunch (1982)

User reviews15

Featured review

10/10

Honest, raw, gentle,kind

Having grown up listening to Gordon Lightfoot and then playing and singing his music on guitar, I'm partial to the wealth and blunt honesty of his songs. There was always a hidden emotional quality to his performances. He was no skilled emoter but oddly, it was all the better. By stepping back, his smooth, rhythmic baritone, his carefully crafted ingenious melodies, lyrics, and arrangements gave you the space to fill in with your feelings, memories and heartbreak.

Just as well, this movie flows along highlighting his great ups and great downs and the "in between" without getting fancy or soppy and without apologies in respecting a true artist. Hid music will be discovered and re-discovered. Canada and the world are better for it.