1975. He was a student at UCLA helping write a concept album for Kenny Rogers when this song came to him in a dream about a ghost horse legend and a Nebraska woman homesteader who dies in a blizzard. He wrote it down the next morning, and it became his own signature song.
Dave Barry: "'killing' in 'killing frost' refers to your flowers and your garden vegetables, and when one is forecast you should cover your tomatoes ... Nobody ever got lost in a killing frost who wouldn't get lost in July as well."