Lyrics to
High And Dry

This version of High And Dry was released by Gordon Lightfoot in 1974.

Our About Gordon Lightfoot page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for High And Dry from 1974 as well as all of the other lyrics from Gordon Lightfoot that we have in our lyrics database.

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

With ladylike devotion, she sails the bitter ocean,
if it wasn’t for lovesick sailors,
there’d be nothin’ left but flotsam.

Singin’ why, me oh my, is there a better man than I?
I hope you find your way back home,
before you’re lyin, high and dry,
I hope you find your way back home before you die.

Her sails below like bubbles,
while you sip your daily doubles,
if she wasn’t so fond of the weather,
she might give the deckhands trouble,

Singin’ why, me oh my, is there a better man than I?
I hope you find your way back home,
before you’re lyin, high and dry,
I hope you find your way back home before you die.

One day when I grew older,
I found I could not hold her,
she took on a fine young skipper,
who soon ran her up on a boulder.

Singin’ why, me oh my, is there a better man than I?
I hope you find your way back home,
before you’re lyin, high and dry,
I hope you find your way back home before you die.

Now the pleasures of the harbor,
don’t include a lady barber,
if it wasn’t for Long John Silver,
all of us pirates would’ve been martyrs,

Singin’ why, me oh my, is there a better man than I?
I hope you find your way back home,
before you’re lyin, high and dry,
I hope you find your way back home,
before you’re lyin, high and dry,
I hope you find your way back home before you die.

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Want more lyrics and songs by Gordon Lightfoot?

Gordon Lightfoot has released many songs over the years besides High And Dry. Gordon Lightfoot released songs from 1966 to 2004 spanning across albums like Lightfoot!, The Way I Feel, Back Here On Earth, Did She Mention My Name, Sunday Concert, Sit Down Young Stranger / If You Could Read My Mind, Summer Side Of Life, Don Quixote, Old Dan's Records, Sundown, Cold On The Shoulder, Summertime Dream, Endless Wire, Dream Street Rose, Shadows, Salute, East Of Midnight, Waiting For You, A Painter Passing Through, and Harmony. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Gordon Lightfoot.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and High And Dry by Gordon Lightfoot

The lyrics for High And Dry are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1974 song by Gordon Lightfoot. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to High And Dry have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for High And Dry - Gordon Lightfoot and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to High And Dry by Gordon Lightfoot in multiple 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 High And Dry" means the words set to the music of High And Dry, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Gordon Lightfoot. 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 High And Dry and the lyrics to High And Dry are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Gordon Lightfoot who came here looking just for the lyrics to High And Dry, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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