Lyrics to
Ordinary Man

This version of Ordinary Man was released by Gordon Lightfoot in 1972.

Our About Gordon Lightfoot page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Ordinary Man from 1972 as well as all of the other lyrics from Gordon Lightfoot that we have in our lyrics database.

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Try to understand
I’m not your ordinary man, still I can’t deny
You go with me everywhere
When I’m dreamin’ you still share my lonely nights
Try to see my side
It’s not your ordinary pride that keeps drivin’ me on
It’s that lonesome, restless feelin’ that you feel under the gun
And it leads me to the highways but it keeps my body warm

And as I wander to the cities and the towns
I get so lonesome knowin’ you could be around
And when the show is over, there’s a holiday motel
Another empty bottle and another tale to tell

Try to comprehend
I’m not your ordinary friend at the end of my life
I would pray that I could be
Returning to the shelter of your love
Try to see my side
It’s not your ordinary pride that keeps drivin’ me on
It’s that lonesome, restless feelin’ that you feel under the gun
And it leads me to the highways but it keeps my body warm

And as I wander to the cities and the towns
I get so lonesome knowin’ you could be around
And when the show is over, there’s a holiday motel
Another empty bottle and another tale to tell

Try to understand
I’m not your ordinary man, still I can’t deny
You go with me everywhere
Like a shadow in the gloom
I remember all the good times
There’s a ghost in every room

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Want more lyrics and songs by Gordon Lightfoot?

Gordon Lightfoot has released many songs over the years besides Ordinary Man. 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 1972 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Ordinary Man by Gordon Lightfoot

When you decide to study the lyrics to Ordinary Man, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1972 song by Gordon Lightfoot. Some of the lyrics to Ordinary Man have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Gordon Lightfoot and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Ordinary Man if you take apart the structure of the words. 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 Ordinary Man" means the words set to the music of Ordinary Man, 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 Ordinary Man and the lyrics to Ordinary Man 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 Ordinary Man, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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