Lyrics to
Bartender’s Blues

This version of Bartender’S Blues was released by James Taylor in 1977.

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Now I’m just a bartender, and I don’t like my work, but I don’t mind the money at all.
I see lots of sad faces and lots of bad cases of folks with their backs to the wall.
But I need four walls around me to hold my life, to keep me from going astray,
and a honky-tonk angel to hold me tight to keep me from slipping away.

I can light up your smokes, I can laugh at your jokes,
I can watch you fall down on your knees.
I can close down this bar, I can gas up my car, I can pack up and mail in my key.
But I need four walls around me to hold my life, to keep me from going astray,
and a honky-tonk angel to hold me tight to keep me from slipping away.

Now, the smoke fills the air in this honky-tonk bar
and I’m thinking ’bout where I’d rather be.
But I burned all my bridges, I sank all my ships and I’m stranded at the edge of the sea.
But I need four walls around me to hold my life, to keep me from going astray,
and a honky-tonk angel to hold me tight to keep me from slipping away.

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James Taylor has released many songs over the years besides Bartender’S Blues. James Taylor released songs from 1968 to 2002 spanning across albums like James Taylor, Sweet Baby James, Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon, One Man Dog, Walking Man, Gorilla, In The Pocket, JT, Flag, Dad Loves His Work, That's Why I'm Here, Never Die Young, New Moon Shine, Hourglass, and October Road. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by James Taylor.

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About Lyrics and Bartender’S Blues by James Taylor

When you decide to study the lyrics to Bartender’S Blues, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1977 song by James Taylor. Some of the lyrics to Bartender’S Blues have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only James Taylor and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

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

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