Lyrics to
Motorway

This version of Motorway was released by The Kinks in 1972.

Our Decade Lyrics The Kinks profile has all of the Motorway lyrics from 1972 and many more songs from the The Kinks discography that we have on file.

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

Motorway food is the worst in the world,
You’ve never eaten food like you’ve eaten on the motorway.
Motorway food is the worst in the world,
The coffee tastes weak and the cakes taste stale
And gasoline fumes are the worst to inhale,
Your stomach rolls over and your face turns pale.

Oh, that motorway livin’,
Ain’t it a thrill to be so free, yeh.
Riding down the motorway,
Got to charge up my batteries,
Rest my seat, rest my eyes,

So tired, tired of livin’, tired of livin’ this motorway livin’.

Motorway tea is warm and wet,
The rain is a pouring and it’s four in the morning,
And it’s all I can get.
You’ve never seen loos like motorway loos,
Thousands of people passing through,
It’s enough to put you off of your motorway food.

Oh that motorway living,
Ain’t it a thrill to be so free, yeh.
Got to get away from
Cats eyes, cold meat pies,
Thousand on raft, cold French fries
So tired, tired of livin’, tired of livin’ this motorway livin’.

Motorway food is invariably fried,
It keeps me and feeds me and helps me survive.
Oh that motorway, ain’t it a thrill to be so free, yeh,
Riding down the motorway, cats eyes, cold meat pies
Thousand on raft, cold French fries,
So tired, tired of livin’, tired of livin’ this motorway livin’.

Motorway food is the worst in the world,
You’ll never eat food like you’ve eaten on the motorway.
Motorway food is the worst in the world.

My stomach’s upset and I don’t feel well,
Gotta get my head down, stop for a while in a motorway hotel.
Mama oh mama, my dear Suzi too,
This motorway message is sent just for you.
My headache’s improved but my back really hurts,
I never thought I’d travel so far to work.

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Want more lyrics and songs by The Kinks?

The Kinks has released many songs over the years besides Motorway. The Kinks released songs from 1964 to 1993 spanning across albums like Kinks, Kinda Kinks, The Kink Kontroversy, Face To Face, Something Else, The Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire), Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One, Muswell Hillbillies, Percy, Everybody's In Show-Biz, Preservation Act I, Preservation Act II, Soap Opera, Schoolboys In Disgrace, Sleepwalker, Misfits, Low Budget, Give The People What They Want, State Of Confusion, Word Of Mouth, Think Visual, UK Jive, and Phobia. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Kinks.

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

About Lyrics and Motorway by The Kinks

The lyrics for Motorway are defined as the words making up the song released by The Kinks in 1972. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Motorway have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only The Kinks and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Motorway by The Kinks if you think through it. 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 Motorway" means the words set to the music of Motorway, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Kinks. 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 Motorway and the lyrics to Motorway are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Kinks who came here looking just for the lyrics to Motorway, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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