Lyrics to
If Children Had Wings

This version of If Children Had Wings was released by Gordon Lightfoot in 1978.

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There’s a love I hold dear
And it shines through each year
And it makes things seem different somehow
It’s for better or worse
It’s for people who thirst
For a love that burns brighter right now

And it shines on and on ’til all sadness is gone
And if children had wings I would sing them this song
With a smile on my face and a tear in my eye
Everything will be fine by and by

There were things that were said
There were things that were done
And a wife cannot stand too much pain
And what I thought was best
Couldn’t please her much less
But my love still goes on, that don’t change

And it shines on and on ’til all sadness is gone
And if children had wings I would sing them this song
With a smile on my lips and a tear in my eye
Everything will be fine by and by

And it shines on and on ’til all sadness is gone
And if children had wings I would sing them this song
With a smile on my face and a tear in my eye
Everything will be fine by and by

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Gordon Lightfoot has released many songs over the years besides If Children Had Wings. 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 lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1978 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and If Children Had Wings by Gordon Lightfoot

When you decide to study the lyrics to If Children Had Wings, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1978 song by Gordon Lightfoot. Some of the lyrics to If Children Had Wings have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Gordon Lightfoot and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to If Children Had Wings 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 If Children Had Wings" means the words set to the music of If Children Had Wings, 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 If Children Had Wings and the lyrics to If Children Had Wings 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 If Children Had Wings, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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