Lyrics to
I Never Talk To Strangers

This version of I Never Talk To Strangers was released by Tom Waits in 1977.

Our About Tom Waits page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for I Never Talk To Strangers from 1977 as well as all of the other lyrics from Tom Waits that we have in our lyrics database.

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stop me if you’ve heard this one
i feel as though we’ve met before
perhaps i’m mistaken
but it’s just that i remind you
of someone you used to care about
but that was long ago
do you think i’d fall for that
i wasn’t born yesterday
besides i never talk to strangers anyway

i ain’t a bad guy when you get to know me
i just thought there ain’t no harm
hey just try minding your own business
bud who asked you to annoy me
with your sad repartee
besides i never talk to strangers anyway

your life’s a dimestore novel
this town is full of guys like you
and you’re looking for someone to take the place of her
and you’re bitter cause he left you
that’s why you’re drinkin in this bar
well only suckers fall in love
with perfect strangers

it always takes one to know one stranger
maybe we’re just wiser now
and been around the block so many times
that we don’t notice
that we’re all just perfect strangers
as long as we ignore
that we all begin as strangers
just before we find
we really aren’t strangers anymore

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Tom Waits has released many songs over the years besides I Never Talk To Strangers. Tom Waits released songs from 1973 to 2004 spanning across albums like Closing Time, The Heart Of Saturday Night, Nighthawks At The Diner, Small Change, Foreign Affairs, Blue Valentine, Heartattack And Vine, Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, The Early Years Vol. 1, Bone Machine, The Black Rider, The Early Years Vol. 2, Mule Variations, Blood Money, Alice, and Real Gone. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Tom Waits.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and I Never Talk To Strangers by Tom Waits

The lyrics for I Never Talk To Strangers are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1977 song by Tom Waits. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to I Never Talk To Strangers 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 I Never Talk To Strangers - Tom Waits 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 I Never Talk To Strangers by Tom Waits 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 I Never Talk To Strangers" means the words set to the music of I Never Talk To Strangers, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Tom Waits. 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 I Never Talk To Strangers and the lyrics to I Never Talk To Strangers are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Tom Waits who came here looking just for the lyrics to I Never Talk To Strangers, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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