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"Can You Read My Mind"


odnurega1

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I recently listened to the entire Superman soundtrack...the older version..not sure what its titled for sure...and had never heard "Can You Read My Mind" before. As I was listening to it the first time, I laughed a bit, and to be honest, I thought that the vocals and lyrics were corny. I liked JW's music in the background quite a bit, but couldn't get into the performance as a whole.

But, for some reason, I can't get it out of my head, and have listened to it a few more times since. I can't decide if I like it or not, because sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. I guess what I am trying to say that while I find it odd, I am still curiously interested in it.

Does anyone else feel the same way? Do you like it, or not? Why?

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The music is excellent, and the sung version by SHirley bassey (and other version whose singer i dont remember, but i prefer) is great.

The margot Kidder recited version is corny...and the lyrics do not blend with the music as they should.

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Anyone who actually likes the lyrical version needs to have their ears syringed. It was woeful then and it is woeful now. No surprises there.

no your just being a stick in the mud, always complaining.

its not a great song, but its fun, and its romantic.

I love it.

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Methinks he feels the need to make up for other deficiencies.....

.....either that or he's still smarting from getting dumped out of the FA Cup by - ahem - Barnsley......

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Can you read my mind?

Do you know what it is you do to me?

Don't know who you are,

Just a friend from another star

Here I am like a kid at a school

Holding hands with a god, I'm a fool

Will you look at me quivering

Like a little girl shivering?

You can see right through me

Can you read my mind?

Can you picture the things I'm thinking of?

Wondering why you are

All the wonderful things you are

You can fly, you belong to the sky

You and I could belong to each other

If you need a friend,

I'm the one to fly to

If you need to be loved, (to be loved)

Here I am, read my mind!

INSTRUMENTAL BRIDGE

Will you look at me quivering

Like a little girl shivering?

You can see right through me

If you need a friend,

I'm the one to fly to

If you need to be loved,

Here I am, read my mind!

Read my mind!

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It's bad, an ugly blemish on what is otherwise a really great score.

One of the worst JW songs actually.

At the moment, I can't think of a worse one (though I don't have a lot of JW's earlier scores).

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any of the Hook songs, that God awful song from Amistad,

I like this better than For Always.

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I like the theme, but I have a difficult time getting past the blatant Strauss. I always expect to hear Strauss's resolution of the theme rather than Williams', and whenever I hear the Strauss I'm always expecting to hear Williams' resolution. Oy...

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any of the Hook songs, that God awful song from Amistad,

I like this better than For Always.

The Hook songs are better than Can You Read My Mind IMO, even though they aren't that great.

For Always is much better than CYRMM, but I actually sorta like For Always.

I don't have the soundtrack to Amistad, but I do have Dry Your Tears, Afrika, and that is better than the Hook songs, For Always, and CYRMM.

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"Dry Your Tears, Afrika" is God-awful??? It's a terrific piece of music IMO.

"Can You Read My Mind" has always worked for me in the context of watching the movie but I'm glad to have it on soundtrack without the vocal. The concert version of the Superman love theme (end credits) is one of my favorite JW pieces, so I have no problem with it as a song but it's the McGovern cover version that really works.

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It's not necessarily bad. It's just, ah... dated.

I actually really like "Dry Your Tears, Afrika". It's one of my favorites. I don't see how anyone couldn't like it (although I respect it if you don't :lol: )

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In the above lyrics, the line is "...kid out of school," not "at a school".

The lyrics, overall, are just god-awful. "Shivering" and "quivering" are about as bad as Prince's "If I gave you Diamonds and Pearls...would you be a happy boy or a girl" (I'm a huge Prince fan) when it comes to trite rhymes. It makes Horner and Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" sound like a stunning masterpiece.

In an interview, even the Superman screenwriters (Leslie Newman and her late husband David Newman) said that they found the song "embarassing" (then again, they were wholly responsible for the dialogue and story of SUPERMAN III). Director Richard Donner really was off his rocker when he decided to incorporate Margot Kidder's voiceover.

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What does everybody here think of For Always? I for one like it. The lyrics may be a bit corny, but it is so beautiful. I find it vastly superior to Can You Read My Mind.

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I love it.

Neil

exactly

That love theme is one of my top Williams pieces. The thought of hearing it in better sound quality almost forced me to rape my pocketbook to buy that blue box set...

I remember when I was a wee lad, attending one of those lame school functions when the teachers force a class to get on stage and sing, and one poor group sang Can You Read My Mind. My film score fanaticism was in its infancy, and I spent the entire trite experience trying to figure out where I had heard the music before.

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What does everybody here think of For Always? I for one like it. The lyrics may be a bit corny, but it is so beautiful. I find it vastly superior to Can You Read My Mind.

The theme (Monica's) is just beautiful. I like the song pretty well too, but I definitely prefer the instrumental renditions in the score.

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I can definitely understand why the people who hate "Can You Read My Mind?" hate it. It is pure cheese, pure sap, pure '70s. But I think it's like that for a reason, and I think it works extremely well in the movie.

Bear in mind, that sequence is entirely from the point-of-view of Lois Lane. In other words, everything that happens is supposed to be viewed with her emotions in mind. That's why the cinematography gets a little fuzzy, and the movie takes a sidestep into a dreamlike state that doesn't exist in any other sequence. But it's totally in character: Lois is a hard-as-nails, uncompromising career woman . . . until she's in Superman's arms, at which point in time she turns into a ball of mush. Drivelling, whimpering, girly-gril mush. To prove it, she gets a song.

To me, the artificiality of the whole thing is kind of the point. Why? Because this is a romance that can NEVER work. Even Superman II got that one right in the end. Therefore, you take the music -- representing Superman himself, and his ability to fly -- which is graceful, powerful, transcendant, and superimpose (pardon the pun) over the top of it a hopelessly artificial if charmingly sincere piece of cheese like "Can You Read My Mind?", and what you get is a musical portrait of a relationship that is doomed to exist only in the dreams of the two people involved. I'm not sure I'm saying that clearly enough, but it makes sense in my head.

That said, yes, I can definitely understand why so many people find it cringe-inducing. I just don't happen to be one of them.

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Can you read my mind? Good job you can't read what I'm saying right now. "Go on a diet?", I hear you say. Good heavens no. "Stick a grenade in Hans Zimmer's mouth and pull the pin?" Close. Funniest line wins a 2 week walkabout with Margot Kidder.

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