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“If You Could Read My Mind” There’s No Telling What You Would Find

24 Dec

The other day I caught the ending of “Wonderland”, a movie starring Val Kilmer. It chronicles the life of John Holmes, porn legend, and his possible role in a murder/robbery. The ending is the best part of the movie. Holmes and his girlfriend are parked in the desert discussing the future. He then takes off while the movie tells us what the future held for them and others portrayed in the film. All of that is great, but the best part is that Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind” was playing over the scene. This was one of my favorite songs as a kid and like it to this day. I even saw Lightfoot in concert just to hear this one song live.

When I was young, my favorite songs were ones I could visualize. I could see the guy trying to frantically check out of the “Hotel California”. I could also see the car going down Interstate 40 in “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”. However, nothing hit my imagination like “If You Could Read My Mind”. I know that I took things too literally and missed the deeper meanings of the lyrics, but I still can’t listen to these songs without watching the childhood created movie in my head.

Obviously. Lightfoot’s song is about a love that has run its course.

I don’t know where we went wrong

But the feelins’ gone

And I just can’t get it back.

See. he spells it out plainly. But, my child’s imagination focused on other lines.

If I could read your mind love

What a tale your thoughts could tell.

Just like the paperback novel.

The kind that drugstores sell.

I could actually see a woman buying a paperback in a drugstore. Then, there was the part about the movie.

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.

Again, I could see a movie set where actors are playing the roles that Lightfoot is describing. However. the best part was in the beginning of the song.

Just like an old-time movie

‘Bout a ghost in 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.

This part was easy to imagine because I had seen exactly what he was describing. I loved watching Abbott and Costello movies, and all of them were basically the same. Abbott played the straight man to Costello’s bumbling character. But, one movie was different. In 1946, they made “The Time of Their Lives”, about star-crossed lovers killed during the American Revolution. Their ghosts are trapped on an estate, specifically to a well, until they can prove their innocence. Each time I heard “If You Could Read My Mind” I thought about Abbott and Costello and the ghost movie that they made.

I have often wondered if this was something I conjured up, or did Gordon Lightfoot use the movie as his inspiration? How weird would it be if a 1940s Abbott and Costello movie led to a hit song about dying love in the 1970s? I have no idea if Lightfoot ever saw the movie, but I like to think that I figured out his secret and was able to read his mind, to paraphrase from the song. If not then I know that this song and others did what good songs are meant to do. They allowed me to enter my imagination and take what I wanted from them. From “If You Could Read My Mind” I took Abbott and Costello; combined them with a woman buying a paperback from a drugstore; and put them all on a movie set to my own made up studio where I was the star.

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A Requiem for Josey Wales

28 Nov

In 1976, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, which could be considered the last great film of the Western heyday. Obviously, “Dances With Wolves” and “Unforgiven” won Academy Awards in later years, but they came after the popularity of the genre had passed. “The Outlaw Josey Wales” marks the end of an era when Hollywood saw the Western as a major aspect of its production. The next year saw the release of “Star Wars” and the advent of modern Science Fiction. There would be new heroes to fill the minds of kids, and the quick draw cowboy would become a thing of the past. Few of the Science Fiction lovers realized that space and post-apocalyptic earth were mere replacements for the plains and deserts of the American West, and they were watching Western stories with special effects. But, that is another story for another day.

“The Outlaw Josey Wales” is a favorite of many Western lovers for its hero/outlaw who operates in solitude and kills anyone who gets in his way. As Lone Watie, who rides with Josey, says, “I notice when you get to dislikin’ somebody they ain’t around for long neither.” However, this is a misconception of the movie and the meaning behind it. Westerns have been the perfect genre to portray the issues of our world. “High Noon” was about the Red Scare and actions of Joseph McCarthy. “The Searchers” is an exploration into racism. “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” is about the destruction of the West by American society. “The Outlaw Josey Wales” is about the evils of war.

In the beginning, Josey Wales is a simple farmer who witnesses his family being killed in an attack on his land. The Civil War is raging, and gangs under the guise of military action are terrorizing the border of Missouri and Kansas. Josey joins marauders from Missouri to gain revenge on his attackers, Redlegs of Kansas. When the war ends, Josey finds himself an outlaw simply because he was on the losing side. The rest of the movie is an epic chase as Josey is chased by his enemies through Indian Territory and Texas.

This is where the misconception of the movie begins. First, Josey does not kill for the sale of killing. He fights to protect himself and to protect others. He shoots men who are attempting to rape a Native American woman and kills Comancheros who have attacked pioneers from Kansas. Josey also finds himself face-to-face with Ten Bears, a Comanche chief. Instead of fighting, Josey states that “men can live together without butchering one another.” Second, Josey Wales is not the lonely rider of the plains. He rides with marauders during the war, and, as the movie continues, he finds allies along the way:

Jamie – the young man who fought with Josey during the war and died along the trail.

Lone Watie – the Cherokee elder who saw his way of life destroyed just as Josey had.

Little Moonlight – the Native American woman whose life was filled with abuse.

Grandma Sarah and Laura Lee- the pioneers from Kansas attacked by Comancheros.

Rose, Travis, Ten Spot, Kelly and Chato – the only residents of a dead mining town who help rebuild the ranch of Grandma Sarah’s son, who was probably one of the men who attacked Josey’s farm.

“The Outlaw Josey Wales” is not about a lone gunslinger. It is about a man whose life was destroyed by war. His family was taken away, but he found a new family whose lives had also been affected negatively. People who faced tragedy created a new community of happiness and hope on a ranch far away from the pain that drove them there. Unfortunately, Josey’s peace did not last long as his trackers finally arrived. But, the man who thought he was alone learned that he never really was. Captain Terrill, Josey’s archenemy states, “You’re all alone now. Wales.” Lone Watie sticks his rifle out of a window and declares, “Well, he’s not exactly alone.”

At the end of the movie, Josey has killed his enemy but been shot in the process. After lamenting the destruction of war, he rides away bleeding and slightly slumped in the saddle. Did Josey return to the ranch and the love of his new family? Did he ride off into the sunset never to be seen again? Did he die from his wounds? That is left to the imagination, but it really doesn’t matter. In the end, Josey realized that he wasn’t the only victim of war and that he was never really alone.

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