A Criminal Mind

"A Criminal Mind"
Song

"A Criminal Mind" is a song written, composed, and performed by Lawrence Gowan, who refers to it as one of his signature songs.

After his 1982 debut album Gowan did not fare well, Gowan "found himself naturally gravitating" to the Queen Street West music scene that was developing in Toronto in the mid 1980s. This drew the attention of Columbia Records, which would fund his next album. Gowan spent a year writing songs, and also travelled to Scotland and Ireland to trace his heritage. While there, he received a telephone call from English record producer David Tickle, who said he would produce the album and arranged a recording session. Tickle secured the services of several session musicians from the backing band of Peter Gabriel for the recording session, including bassist Tony Levin, drummer Jerry Marotta, and guitarist David Rhodes. The album Strange Animal was recorded at Startling Studios owned by Ringo Starr.

Upon completion of recording for the album, Gowan collaborated with videographer Rob Quartly to create a music video for the song. They spent two months together, during which they created "a ground-breaking video" with a unique treatment according to Keith Sharp, as well as a music video for the song "(You're A) Strange Animal".

In an interview with Nick Krewen of Music Express magazine, Gowan stated that "videos can be powerful but they are so misused" and that he was "really happy" with the result for this video. Music critic John Griffin of The Gazette referred to as an "amazing video". It won the Juno Award for Best Video at the 1985 Juno Awards. Other nominees included the video for "(You're A) Strange Animal" from the same album, also produced by Quartly, and a third video produced by Quartly, for the song "Never Surrender" by Corey Hart. That year, the song was nominated for the Juno Award for Single of the Year, which was won by Corey Hart for "Never Surrender".

Don Oates, vice president of sales and marketing for Columbia Records, stated that the music video was pivotal in the song receiving airplay in Canada. In an article in The Gazette, Martin Siberok stated that "the role of video" was key to the song appearing on record charts. Kirk LaPointe of Billboard magazine stated that Gowan was the "clearest beneficiary" of the existence of MuchMusic (which had launched in September 1984) as the album Strange Animal achieved double platinum status and Gowan emerged as a "hit domestic artist". Despite his domestic success and the album's United States release in May 1985, the song received little airplay in the United States.

In April 1999, Gowan received a call from a member of the band Styx, which was interested in inviting him to fill in for Dennis DeYoung, who refused to perform for concerts. He met the band at the house of Tommy Shaw, where they performed a few songs, the first of which was "A Criminal Mind". The band suggested to make it "a Styx song". After the band's acrimonious split with DeYoung Gowan was asked to become a permanent member. He agreed, and they performed their first concert together in Branson, Missouri later in 1999.

As of 2012 "A Criminal Mind" is still on the band's tour set list and it still plays the song at concerts, which has led to increased awareness of Gowan's musical repertoire amongst Styx fans. As a result, "A Criminal Mind" and other songs in his repertoire, including "Moonlight Desires", "All The Lovers in the World", "(You're A) Strange Animal", and "Guerrila Soldier", received increased airplay on Boom FM, Q107, and other radio stations. In 2014, Gowan received three "Classic Music Award" from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada for the songs "A Criminal Mind", "Dancing On My Own Ground" and "(You’re A) Strange Animal" each having achieved 100,000 radio airplays throughout Canada since their release. Gowan has previously stated he became aware of the increased airplay because of the royalties cheques he receives.