Lyrics to
Goofus

This version of Goofus was released by The Carpenters in 1976.

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I was born on a farm out in Ioway
A flaming youth I was bound I would
I packed my grip and I grabbed
my saxophone
Can’t read notes, but I play
anything by ear
I made up tunes on the sounds
that I used to hear
When I’d start to play folks used to say
“Sounds a little Goofus to me”

Cornfed chords appeal to me
I like rustic harmony
Hold a note and change the key
Hey but that’s “Goofus”

Not according to the rules
That you learn in music schools
But the folks just dance like fools
They sure go for “Goofus”

Got a job but I just couldn’t keep it long
The leader said that I played all
the music wrong
So I stepped out with an outfit of my own
Got together a new kind of orchestree
And we all played just the same
“Goofus” harmony
And I must admit we made a hit
“Goofus” has been lucky for me

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The Carpenters has released many songs over the years besides Goofus. The Carpenters released songs from 1969 to 1989 spanning across albums like Ticket To Ride, Close To You, Carpenters, A Song For You, Now And Then, Horizon, A Kind Of Hush, Passage, Christmas Portrait, Made In America, Voice Of The Heart, An Old-Fashioned Christmas, and Lovelines. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Carpenters.

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About Lyrics and Goofus by The Carpenters

When you decide to study the lyrics to Goofus, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1976 song by The Carpenters. Some of the lyrics to Goofus have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only The Carpenters and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

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

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