Lyrics to
Old Mister Time

Our About 10Cc page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Old Mister Time from 1978 as well as all of the other lyrics from 10Cc that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to 10Cc or about the 1970s in general.

He looked funny
The children called him the scarecrow
An old raincoat
And baggy trousers and sneakers
he found at the dump
Oh, but if you bothered to look
There was something behind the rags
Oh there was a look in his eyes
It was something you’d never forget

He lived badly
A broken shack on the railway
An old moggy
The only one who replied
When he talked to the walls
Oh we didn’t understand
We were fooled by the dirt on his face
Oh we were human then
We were searching behind his disgrace

Why don’t you leave me alone
Why don’t you go to your homes
Why don’t you keep to yourselves
I’m tellin you
Why don’t you leave me alone

You’re never gonna realise
When all you do is criticise
You’re never gonna make it work
You never seem to get enough
You crumble when its getting rough
You’re never gonna make it work
I’m tellin’ you there’ll come a day
You’re gonna blow yourselves away
It’s wrong that I should interfere
I just get in the way

Why don’t you leave me alone
Why don’t you go to your homes
Why don’t you keep to yourselves
I’m tellin you
Why don’t you leave me alone

Deep into the night
He was working by the light
of the candle by his bed
on the theory in his head
He was building from the junk
that he rescued from the dump
And when he turned the power on
There was a sound and he was gone

Oh in the gray of the dawn
We discovered the thing he was working on
Oh we didn’t understand
The future was Old Mister Time
Future was Old Mister Time
Future was Old Mister Time
Future was Old Mister Time
Old Mister Time (Mister Time, Mister Time….)
Old Mister Time (Mister Time, Mister Time….)
Old Mister Time (Mister Time, Mister Time….)

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10Cc has released many songs over the years besides Old Mister Time. 10Cc released songs from 1973 to 1995 spanning across albums like 10cc, Sheet Music, The Original Soundtrack, How Dare You!, Deceptive Bends, Bloody Tourists, Look Hear?, Ten Out Of 10, Windows In The Jungle, ...Meanwhile, and Mirror Mirror. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by 10Cc.

About Lyrics and Old Mister Time by 10Cc

The lyrics for Old Mister Time are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1978 song by 10Cc. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Old Mister Time have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Old Mister Time - 10Cc and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Old Mister Time by 10Cc in multiple ways. 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 Old Mister Time" means the words set to the music of Old Mister Time, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by 10Cc. 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 Old Mister Time and the lyrics to Old Mister Time are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of 10Cc who came here looking just for the lyrics to Old Mister Time, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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