Lyrics to
Cotton Jenny

This version of Cotton Jenny was released by Gordon Lightfoot in 1971.

Our About Gordon Lightfoot page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Cotton Jenny from 1971 as well as all of the other lyrics from Gordon Lightfoot that we have in our lyrics database.

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There’s a house on a hill
By a worn down, weathered old mill
In the valley below where the river winds
There’s no such thing as bad times
And a soft southern flame
Oh, Cotton Jenny’s her name
She wakes me up when the sun goes down
And the wheel of love goes ’round

Wheels of love go ’round
Love go ’round
Love go ’round
A joyful sound
I ain’t got a penny
For Cotton Jenny to spend
But then
Wheels go ’round

When a new day begins
I go down to the cotton gin
And I make my time worthwhile to them
Then I climb back up again
Then she waits by the door
Oh Cotton Jenny, I’m sore
And she rubs my feet while the sun goes down
And the wheel of love goes ’round

Wheels of love go ’round
Love go ’round
Love go ’round
A joyful sound
I ain’t got a penny
For Cotton Jenny to spend
But then
Wheels go ’round

In the hot, sickly south
When they say “well shut my mouth”
I can never be free from the cotton grind
But I know I’ve got what’s mine
With a soft southern flame
Oh, Cotton Jenny’s her name
she wakes me up when the sun goes down
and the wheel of love goes round

Wheels of love go ’round
Love go ’round
Love go ’round
A joyful sound
I ain’t got a penny
For Cotton Jenny to spend
But then
Wheels go ’round
The wheel goes ’round
‘Round and ’round

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Gordon Lightfoot has released many songs over the years besides Cotton Jenny. 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 1970s music looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Cotton Jenny by Gordon Lightfoot

The lyrics to Cotton Jenny are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Gordon Lightfoot used when the song was created in 1971. The lyrics to Cotton Jenny have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Gordon Lightfoot and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Cotton Jenny by Gordon Lightfoot. 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 Cotton Jenny" means the words set to the music of Cotton Jenny, 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 Cotton Jenny and the lyrics to Cotton Jenny 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 Cotton Jenny, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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