(Gordon Lightfoot)      He was standing by the highway   With a sign that just said Mother   When he heard a driver coming   About a half a mile away   So he held the sign up higher   Where no decent soul could miss it   It was ten degrees or colder   Down by Boulder 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   Singing songs about the ramblin'   The lovin' girls and gamblin'   How the world fell on his shoulders   Back in Boulder I don't know      Chorus   And she told him she would take him   For a ride in the morning sun   Back in Boulder he had told her   I don't know when, I've had a better friend      It was out in Arizona   That he heard the lady listening   To each word that he was saying   To each line that he would write   So he sat down at her table   And they talked about the weather   98.6 and rising down by Boulder Dam that night      Chorus      Now he's traded off his Martin   Though his troubles ain't over   His feet are almost frozen and the sun is sinking 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