Lyrics to
How Many Friends

This version of How Many Friends was released by The Who in 1975.

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I’m feelin’ so good right now
There’s a handsome boy tells me how I changed his past
He buys me a brandy
But could it be he’s really just after my ass?

He likes the clothes I wear
He says he likes a man who’s dressed in season
But no-one else ever stares, he’s being so kind
What’s the reason?

How many friends have I really got?
You can count ’em on one hand
How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
That love me, that want me, that’ll take me as I am?

Suddenly it’s the silver screen
And a face so beautiful that I have to cry out
Everybody hears me
But I look like a fool now
With a cry and I shy out
She knows all of my friends
But it’s nice to find a woman who’s keen on living
Now I think I’ve reached the end
I wonder in the dead of night – how do I rate?

How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
That love me, that want me, that’ll take me as I am?

It’s all like a dream you know
When you’re still up early in the morning
And you all sit together to watch the 1 come through
But things don’t look so good
When you could use a bit of warning
Then you know that no-one will ever speak the truth about you

How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
That love me, that want me, that’ll take me as I am?

When I first signed a contract
It was more than a handshake then
I know it still is
But there’s a plain fact
We talk so much shit behind each other’s backs
I get the willies
People know nothing about their own soft gut
So how come they can sum us up
Without suffering all the hype we’ve known
How come they bum us up

How many friends have I really got?
You can count ’em on one hand
How many friends have I really got?
How many friends have I really got?
That love me, that want me, that’ll take me as I am?

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The Who has released many songs over the years besides How Many Friends. The Who released songs from 1965 to 1982 spanning across albums like The Who Sings My Generation, A Quick One / Happy Jack, The Who Sell Out, Tommy, Who's Next, Quadrophenia, The Who By Numbers, Who Are You, Face Dances, and It's Hard. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Who.

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About Lyrics and How Many Friends by The Who

When you decide to study the lyrics to How Many Friends, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1975 song by The Who. Some of the lyrics to How Many Friends have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only The Who and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

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

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