Lyrics to
Lost Johnny

This version of Lost Johnny was released by Motorhead in 1977.

Our About Motorhead page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Lost Johnny from 1977 as well as all of the other lyrics from Motorhead that we have in our lyrics database.

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

You only get a single chance
The rules are very plain,
The truth is well concealed inside
The details of the game,
You can hear it coming,
You can see it from afar,
It’s pale and it glimmers
Like a faded movie star

And out there in the castle,
They’re trying to make her scream,
By sticking thumb tacks in her flesh
And cancelling her dreams
Can you find the Valium,
Can you bring them soon,
Lost Johnny’s out there,
Baying at the moon

The time has come for you to choose,
You’d better get it right,
Smiling girls with sharp white teeth
Are waiting in the night,
But you want to really get some,
It surely can’t be hard,
There’s always trouble lurking
When you leave your own backyard

Underneath the city,
The alligators sing,
Of how the fool he cannot dance,
Since someone cuts the strings,
Can you find the morphine,
Try to be so brief,
Lost Johnny’s out there,
Looking for relief

That laddie looks so evil,
And you know he really tries,
But every time he makes a play,
That vital number dies,
And Sally buys her underwear,
From a store where no-one goes,
She makes it big in photographs,
On the strength of what she shows,

And here inside the waiting room,
The radio still screams,
And we’re shooting children,
To murder all young things,
Can you find your credit card,
For god’s sake make it quick,
Lost Johnny’s out there,
Trying to turn a trick

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Motorhead has released many songs over the years besides Lost Johnny. Motorhead released songs from 1977 to 2004 spanning across albums like Motorhead, Overkill, Bomber, Ace Of Spades, Iron Fist, Another Perfect Day, No Remorse, Orgasmatron, Rock 'n' Roll, 1916, March Or Die, Bastards, Sacrifice, Overnight Sensation, Snake Bite Love, We Are Motorhead, Hammered, and Inferno. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Motorhead.

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 Lost Johnny by Motorhead

The lyrics for Lost Johnny are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1977 song by Motorhead. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Lost Johnny 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 Lost Johnny - Motorhead 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 Lost Johnny by Motorhead 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 Lost Johnny" means the words set to the music of Lost Johnny, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Motorhead. 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 Lost Johnny and the lyrics to Lost Johnny are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Motorhead who came here looking just for the lyrics to Lost Johnny, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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