What Goes Through Your Mind

Version 1 is a full studio recording, with the band Larry called White Light

Note that the UK Bootleg vinyl has a reversed stereo image compared to the US vinyl releases

Bootleg [Except Illegal Noise and 2005 CDs]
Down Under [All versions except Royal Music LP]
[Note: On the CD release the first fraction of a second has been cut, so it starts "Goes through your mind" rather than "What goes through your mind"]
The Cottage Tapes - Book One
Survivor (Songs From 1956 To 2000)
The Best Of Larry Norman Volume One

Version 2 is the same recording as version 1, but faded out about four seconds earlier

Bootleg [Illegal Noise and 2005 CDs]

Version 3 is the same recording as versions 1 and 2, but faded out earlier

Agitator

Version 4 is the same edit as version 3, but with a more gradual fade out

The Cottage Tapes Book Two

lyrics version 1

What goes through your mind
What goes through your mind

You think your life is hell
But you've learned to hide it well
But when you sleep at night
Does it all come back
And it’s you who's black inside

Oh who you trying to fool
When you play it cool
You know you have big doubts
Of what life's all about
And questions fill your head
Is God really dead
Is there life after we die

If you're trying to please the world
You're gonna be let down
And the sea of people don't care if you live
Or if you drown

What goes through your mind
What goes through your mind

The things you think you want
They only screw you up
You can be good or bad
Do what you want to do
And it’s up to you to decide

Just what goes through your mind girl
I think you like being blind girl
Look for the truth and you'll find it girl
The truth's ahead, you're behind it girl
Just what goes through your mind girl
I think you like being blind girl
Just what goes through your mind girl

What goes through your mind [x2, faintly]
[Whistling]
What goes through your mind [x2, faintly]

lyrics version 2

lyrics versionS 3 and 4

I wanted to write a confronting but compassionate song about the people who were losing their way through life. I wanted it to be a rock song, but also sorrowful. I wrote this on the piano at Capitol Records and also refined it on the out-of-tune upright at my parent's house, the one I finally got when I was in high school. I had written so many songs on it that whenever I'd visit my parents I would sound out the new songs on it because its tone and timbre were so familiar. I still have that piano. It sits in their dining room [From The Cottage Tapes CD booklet]