Lyrics to
James

This version of James was released by Billy Joel in 1976.

Our Decade Lyrics Billy Joel profile has all of the James lyrics from 1976 and many more songs from the Billy Joel discography that we have on file.

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

James…we were always friends,
From our childhood days
And we made our plans,
And we had to go our seperate ways.
I went on the road
You pursued an education.

James…do you like your life,
Can you find release,
And will you ever change
Will you ever write your masterpiece.
Are you still in school
Living up to expectations…James…

You were so relied upon, everybody knows how hard you tried-
Hey…just look at what a job you’ve done,
Carrying the weight of family pride.
James…you’ve been well behaved,
You’ve been working so hard
But will you always stay
Someone else’s dream of who you are.
Do what’s good for you, or you’re not good for anybody…James.

I went on the road
You pursued an education…James…
How you gonna know for sure-everything was so well organized.
Hey…now everything is so secure,
and everybody else is satisfied.

James…do you like your life,
Can you find release
And will you ever change,
When will you write your masterpiece.
Do what’s good for you, or you’re not good for anybody…James…

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Want more lyrics and songs by Billy Joel?

Billy Joel has released many songs over the years besides James. Billy Joel released songs from 1971 to 1993 spanning across albums like Cold Spring Harbor, Piano Man, Streetlife Serenade, Turnstiles, The Stranger, 52nd Street, Glass Houses, The Nylon Curtain, An Innocent Man, The Bridge, Storm Front, and River Of Dreams. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Billy Joel.

If you're a fan of the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1976 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and James by Billy Joel

The lyrics for James are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1976 song by Billy Joel. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to James 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 James - Billy Joel 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 James by Billy Joel 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 James" means the words set to the music of James, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Billy Joel. 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 James and the lyrics to James are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Billy Joel who came here looking just for the lyrics to James, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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