Gordon Lightfoot – Sit Down Young Stranger

Sit Down Young Stranger (re-released as If You Could Read My Mind in 1971) is Gordon Lightfoot's fifth studio album, his first with Reprise, and the one that provided his commercial breakthrough outside of Canada. It peaked at #12 on both the RPM chart in Canada and the Billboard chart in the US.

Sit Down Young Stranger ranked 20th in the 1992 Mar*Star poll and 69th in Bob Mersereau's 2007 book, The Top 100 Canadian Albums. AllMusic gave it 4.5 stars out of 5, calling it "an album filled with attractive, folky melodies" and Rolling Stone consistently rated it Lightfoot's best album, giving it 4 stars in 1983 (The New Record Guide) and 3.5 stars in 1992 (The Album Guide).

Sit Down Young Stranger spawned three hit singles: "Me and Bobby McGee" (#1 RPM Country Tracks, #13 RPM Top Singles), "Approaching Lavender" (#20 RPM Adult Contemporary), and "If You Could Read My Mind" (#1 RPM Singles, #1 RPM Adult Contemporary, #5 Billboard Single, #1 Billboard Adult Contemporary, #30 UK Singles), which is also included on this list of Great Canadian Songs.

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Track Listing

1. "Minstrel of the Dawn" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 3:26
2. "Me and Bobby McGee" – 3:38 (Kris Kristofferson, Fred Foster)
3. "Approaching Lavender" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 2:56
4. "Saturday Clothes" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 3:20
5. "Cobwebs & Dust" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 3:20
6. "Poor Little Allison" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 2:30
7. "Sit Down Young Stranger" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 3:26
8. "If You Could Read My Mind" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 3:48
9. "Baby It's Allright" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 2:58
10. "Your Love's Return (Song for Stephen Foster)" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 3:55
11. "The Pony Man" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 3:27

Personnel

• Gordon Lightfoot – vocals, guitar
• Red Shea – guitar
• Rick Haynes – bass
• Ry Cooder – bottleneck guitar (on 2), mandolin (on 5)
• John Sebastian – auto harp (on 4), electric guitar (on 9), harmonica (on 11)
• Van Dyke Parks – harmonium (on 5)
• Randy Newman – string arrangements (on 1, 3)
• Nick DeCaro – string arrangements (on 6, 8, 10)

• Gordon Lightfoot – Sundown (album)
• Gordon Lightfoot – Summertime Dream (album)
• Gordon Lightfoot – Lightfoot! (album)
• Gordon Lightfoot – The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (song)
• Gordon Lightfoot – Sundown (song)
• Gordon Lightfoot – Canadian Railroad Trilogy (song)
• Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind (song)