Lyrics to
10 Degrees & Getting Colder

This version of 10 Degrees & Getting Colder was released by Gordon Lightfoot in 1971.

Our Decade Lyrics Gordon Lightfoot profile has all of the 10 Degrees & Getting Colder lyrics from 1971 and many more songs from the Gordon Lightfoot discography that we have on file.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Gordon Lightfoot or about the 1970s in general.

He was standin’ by the highway
With a sign that just said “mother”
When he heard a driver comin’
’bout a half a mile away
Then he held the sign up higher
Where no decent soul could miss it
It was ten degrees or colder
Down by bolder dam that day
He was raised up in milwaukee
Though he never was that famous
He was just a road musician
To the taverns he would go
Singin’ songs about the ramblin’
The lovin’ girls and gamblin’
How the world fell on his shoulders
Back in boulder I don’t know

It was out in arizona
That he heard the lady listenin’
To each word that he was sayin’
To each line that he would write

So he sat down by her table and
They talked about the weather
Ninety-eight point six and risin’
Down by boulder dam that day

And she told him she would take him
For a ride in the mornin’ sun
Back in boulder he had told her
“I don’t know when I had a better friend”

Now he’s traded off his martin
But his troubles are not over
For his feet are almost frozen
And the sun is sinkin’ low
Won’t you listen to me brother
If you ever loved your mother
Please pull off on the shoulder
If you’re goin’ milwaukee way
It’s ten degrees and getting colder
Down by boulder dam today

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Gordon Lightfoot has released many songs over the years besides 10 Degrees & Getting Colder. Gordon Lightfoot released songs from 1966 to 2004 spanning across albums like Lightfoot!, The Way I Feel, Back Here On Earth, Did She Mention My Name, Sunday Concert, Sit Down Young Stranger / If You Could Read My Mind, Summer Side Of Life, Don Quixote, Old Dan's Records, Sundown, Cold On The Shoulder, Summertime Dream, Endless Wire, Dream Street Rose, Shadows, Salute, East Of Midnight, Waiting For You, A Painter Passing Through, and Harmony. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Gordon Lightfoot.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and 10 Degrees & Getting Colder by Gordon Lightfoot

The lyrics for 10 Degrees & Getting Colder are defined as the words making up the song released by Gordon Lightfoot in 1971. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to 10 Degrees & Getting Colder have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Gordon Lightfoot and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to 10 Degrees & Getting Colder by Gordon Lightfoot if you think through it. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to 10 Degrees & Getting Colder" means the words set to the music of 10 Degrees & Getting Colder, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Gordon Lightfoot. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to 10 Degrees & Getting Colder and the lyrics to 10 Degrees & Getting Colder are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Gordon Lightfoot who came here looking just for the lyrics to 10 Degrees & Getting Colder, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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