Lyrics to
James, Jesse

This version of James, Jesse was released by Bob Seger in 1972.

Our Bob Seger Songs profile has James, Jesse lyrics from 1972 and most if not all of the lyrics by Bob Seger that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

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

He killed many a man
And he roamed over the Scarsdale range
Robbin’ from the rich
And givin’ to the poor
He was dark and cold and full of rage
Oh yes he was, sing with me
Poor Jesse had a wife
To mourn for his life
And three children
They were oh so brave
But that dirty little coward
He went and shot Mr. Howard
Laid poor Jesse in his grave yeah

It was on a Saturday night
When Jesse was at home
Talking to old railroad Jed
Along come Robert Ford
Like a theif in the night
And he shot poor Jesse in the back

Poor Jesse had a wife
To mourn for his life
Three children
They were oh so brave
But that dirty little coward
He went and shot Mr. Howard
Laid poor Jesse in his grave yeah
He lays
Six feet under the ground

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Bob Seger has released many songs over the years besides James, Jesse. Bob Seger released songs from 1969 to 2006 spanning across albums like Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, Noah, Mongrel, Brand New Morning, Smokin' O.P.'s, Back In '72, Seven, Beautiful Loser, Night Moves, Live Bullet, Stranger In Town, Against The Wind, Nine Tonight, The Distance, Like A Rock, The Fire Inside, Greatest Hits, It's A Mystery, Greatest Hits 2, and Face The Promise. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Bob Seger.

If you're a fan of 1970s music looking for more songs from 1972 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and James, Jesse by Bob Seger

When you decide to study the lyrics to James, Jesse, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1972 song by Bob Seger. Some of the lyrics to James, Jesse have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Bob Seger and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

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

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