Lyrics to
James Dean

This version of James Dean was released by Eagles in 1974.

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James Dean, James Dean
I know just what you mean
James Dean, you said it all so clean
And I know my life would look allright
If I could see it on the silver screen

You were the lowdown rebel if there ever was
Even if you had no cause
James Dean, you said it all so clean
And I know my life would look all right
If I could see it on the silver screen

We’ll talk about a low-down bad refrigerator,
You were just too cool for school
Sock hop, soda pop, basketball and auto shop,
The only thing that got you off was breakin’ all the rules
James Dean, James Dean
So hungry and so lean
James Dean, you said it all so clean
And I know my life would look all right
If I could see it on the silver screen

Little James Dean, up on the screen
Wond’rin’ who he might be
Along came a Spyder and picked up a rider
And took him down the road to eternity

James Dean, James Dean, you bought it sight unseen

You were too fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye
You were to fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye
Bye-bye, Bye-bye, Bye-bye, Bye, bye

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Eagles has released many songs over the years besides James Dean. Eagles released songs from 1972 to 2007 spanning across albums like The Eagles, Desperado, On The Border, One Of These Nights, Hotel California, The Long Run, Hell Freezes Over, and Long Road Out Of Eden. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Eagles.

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About Lyrics and James Dean by Eagles

When you decide to study the lyrics to James Dean, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1974 song by Eagles. Some of the lyrics to James Dean have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Eagles and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

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

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