Lyrics to
Big Boss Man

Our About Grateful Dead page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Big Boss Man from 1971 as well as all of the other lyrics from Grateful Dead that we have in our lyrics database.

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

Big boss man, can’t you hear me when I call?
Big boss man, can’t you hear me when I call?
You ain’t so big, you just tall, that’s just about all.

You got me working boss man, a workin’ around the clock,
I want a little drink of whiskey, you sure won’t let me stop.
Big boss man, can’t you hear me when I call?
You ain’t so big, you just tall, that’s just about all.

I’m gonna get me a boss man, one gonna treat me right,
I work hard in the daytime, sure get drunk at night.

You ain’t so big, you just tall, that’s just about all.

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Grateful Dead has released many songs over the years besides Big Boss Man. Grateful Dead released songs from 1967 to 1989 spanning across albums like The Grateful Dead, Anthem Of The Sun, Live / Dead, Aoxomoxoa, American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses), Europe '72, History Of The Grateful Dead, Vol. 1 (Bear's Choice), Wake Of The Flood, Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel, Blues For Allah, Steal Your Face, Terrapin Station, Shakedown Street, Go To Heaven, Reckoning, In The Dark, and Built To Last. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Grateful Dead.

About Lyrics and Big Boss Man by Grateful Dead

The lyrics for Big Boss Man are defined as the words making up the song released by Grateful Dead in 1971. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Big Boss Man have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Grateful Dead and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Big Boss Man by Grateful Dead if you think through it. 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 Big Boss Man" means the words set to the music of Big Boss Man, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Grateful Dead. 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 Big Boss Man and the lyrics to Big Boss Man are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Grateful Dead who came here looking just for the lyrics to Big Boss Man, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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