Lyrics to
Company Man

This version of Company Man was released by James Taylor in 1979.

Our About James Taylor page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Company Man from 1979 as well as all of the other lyrics from James Taylor that we have in our lyrics database.

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It seems you’ve been living on your own, Lonely and free.
Looking to make yourself known, same as me.
Well I see you in the public eyes, I see you’re looking fine.
The boy would be a businessman and he signs the bottom line.

Singing company man, do what you can with my name.
Rock and roll man, here I am, I’m staking my claim to fame.

He’s got the smiling face of a friend, still you’re not quite certain you know him.
The smile turns into a grin, what do you owe him? You know you owe him.

So if there’s something you do well, something you’re proud of,
better to save some for yourself if that’s allowed.
The crowd will never know you, you’ll hardly know yourself,
they’ll turn you round and blow you up till you think you’re someone else.

Singing company man, do what you can with my name.
Rock and roll man, here I am, I’m staking my claim to fame.

He can turn your time to gold, you better make as much as you can my friend.
Cause his money will turn you old and they need a young man.
The job takes a young man.

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James Taylor has released many songs over the years besides Company Man. 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.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1979 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Company Man by James Taylor

The lyrics to Company Man are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that James Taylor used when the song was created in 1979. The lyrics to Company Man have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only James Taylor and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Company Man by James Taylor. 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 Company Man" means the words set to the music of Company Man, 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 Company Man and the lyrics to Company Man 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 Company Man, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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