Lyrics to
Back To California

This version of Back To California was released by Carole King in 1971.

Our About Carole King page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Back To California from 1971 as well as all of the other lyrics from Carole King that we have in our lyrics database.

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

I’ve been feelin’ down in Atlanta
Immobile in Alabam
I’d rather be in traction
Than to be here where I am
Oh, you Georgia red clay
And green Virginia pines
I’ve got to make it home somehow
Before I lose my mind

So won’t you carry me back to California
I’ve been on the road too long
Take me to the West Coast, daddy
And let me be where I belong

Hey now, Philly, you street city
Been down by the railroad track
I know you can be a sweet city
But I won’t soon be back
Haystack towns and smokestack cities
Are nothin’ I want to see
My own house on high ground
Is the only place I want to be

So won’t you carry me back to California
I’ve been on the road too long
Take me to the West Coast, daddy
And let me be where I belong

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Want more lyrics and songs by Carole King?

Carole King has released many songs over the years besides Back To California. Carole King released songs from 1968 to 2005 spanning across albums like Now That Everything's Been Said, Writer, Tapestry, Music, Rhymes & Reasons, Fantasy, Wrap Around Joy, Really Rosie, Thoroughbred, Simple Things, Welcome Home, Touch The Sky, Pearls: Songs Of Goffin And King, One To One, Speeding Time, City Streets, Colour Of Your Dreams, Love Makes The World, and The Living Room Tour. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Carole King.

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 Back To California by Carole King

When you decide to study the lyrics to Back To California, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1971 song by Carole King. Some of the lyrics to Back To California have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Carole King and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Back To California 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 Back To California" means the words set to the music of Back To California, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Carole King. 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 Back To California and the lyrics to Back To California are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Carole King who came here looking just for the lyrics to Back To California, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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