Lyrics to
Get It While You Can

This version of Get It While You Can was released by Janis Joplin in 1971.

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In this world, if you read the papers, Lord,
You know everybody’s fighting on with each other.
You got no one you can count on, baby,
Not even your own brother.
So if someone comes along,
He’s gonna give you some love and affection
I’d say get it while you can, yeah!
Honey, get it while you can,
Hey, hey, get it while you can,
Don’t you turn your back on love, no, no!

Don’t you know when you’re loving anybody, baby,
You’re taking a gamble on a little sorrow,
But then who cares, baby,
‘Cause we may not be here tomorrow, no.
And if anybody should come along,
He gonna give you any love and affection,
I’d say get it while you can, yeah!
Hey, hey, get it while you can,
Hey, hey, get it while you can.
Don’t you turn your back on love,
No no no, no no no no no.

Oh, get it while you can,
Honey get it when you’re gonna wanna need it dear, yeah yeah,
Hey hey, get it while you can,
Don’t you turn your back on love,
No no no, no no no no, get it while you can,
I said hold on to somebody when you get a little lonely, dear,
Hey hey, hold on to that man’s heart,
Yeah, get it, want it, hold it, need it,
Get it, want it, need it, hold it,
Get it while you can, yeah,
Honey get it while you can, baby, yeah,
Hey hey, get it while you can!

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Janis Joplin has released many songs over the years besides Get It While You Can. Janis Joplin released songs from 1967 to 1971 spanning across albums like Big Brother & The Holding Company, Cheap Thrills, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, and Pearl. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Janis Joplin.

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About Lyrics and Get It While You Can by Janis Joplin

When you decide to study the lyrics to Get It While You Can, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1971 song by Janis Joplin. Some of the lyrics to Get It While You Can have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Janis Joplin and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

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

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