Lyrics to
Better Off Dead

This version of Better Off Dead was released by Elton John in 1975.

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There was a face on a hoarding that someone had drawn on
And just enough time for the night to pass by without warning
Away in the distance there’s a blue flashing light
Someone’s in trouble somewhere tonight
As the flickering neon stands ready to fuse
The wind blows away all of yesterday’s news

Well they’ve locked up their daughters and they battened the hatches
They always could find us but they never could catch us
Through the grease streaked windows of an all night cafe
We watched the arrested get taken away
And that cigarette haze has ecology beat
As the whores and the drunks filed in from the street

‘Cause the steams in the boiler the coals in the fire
If you ask how I am then I’ll just say inspired
If the thorn of a rose is the thorn in your side
Then you’re better off dead if you haven’t yet died

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Elton John has released many songs over the years besides Better Off Dead. Elton John released songs from 1969 to 2004 spanning across albums like Empty Sky, Tumbleweed Connection, Elton John, Madman Across The Water, 11/17/2010, Honky Chateau, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Don't Shoot Me (I'm Only The Piano Player), Caribou, Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, Rock Of The Westies, Blue Moves, A Single Man, Victim Of Love, 21 At 33, The Fox, Jump Up!, Too Low For Zero, Breaking Hearts, Ice On Fire, Leather Jackets, Reg Strikes Back, Sleeping With The Past, The One, Duets, Reg Dwight's Piano Goes Pop, Made In England, The Big Picture, One Night Only, Songs From The West Coast, and Peachtree Road. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Elton John.

If you're a fan of lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1975 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Better Off Dead by Elton John

The lyrics to Better Off Dead are the words, verses and chorus for the song released by Elton John in 1975. Elements of the lyrics to Better Off Dead are both direct in meaning and also metaphorical with the real meanings of the song only known by Elton John and any collaborating writers working on the lyrics for Better Off Dead back when it was created.

Some people have an interest in the etymology behind words and phrases. You can take apart the lyrics to Better Off Dead by Elton John in a number of ways. 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 Better Off Dead" means the words set to the music of Better Off Dead, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Elton John. 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 Better Off Dead and the lyrics to Better Off Dead are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Elton John who came here looking just for the lyrics to Better Off Dead, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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