Lyrics to
Mr. Bojangles

This version of Mr. Bojangles was released by John Denver in 1970.

Our About John Denver page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Mr. Bojangles from 1970 as well as all of the other lyrics from John Denver that we have in our lyrics database.

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Knew a man, Bojangles, and he danced for you in worn out shoes.
Silver hair, ragged shirt and baggy pants, the old soft shoe.
He jumped so high, he jumped so high, then he’d lightly touch down.
Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, dance.

Met him in a cell, in New Orleans it was, down and out.
He looked to me to be the eyes of age as he spoke right out.
He talked of life, he talked of life. He laughed, slapped his leg and stared.
He said his name, Bojangles, and he danced a lick across the cell.
He grabbed his pants and took a stance and he jumped so high, he clicked his heels.
He let go a laugh, he let go a laugh, shook his clothes all around.
Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, dance.

He danced for those at minstrel shows and county fairs throughout the South.
He spoke in tears of 15 years how his dog and him, they traveled about.
The dog up and died, he up and died. After 20 years he still grieves.
He said, I dance now at every chance and honky-tonks for drinks and tips.
But most the time I spend behind these county bars ’cause I drinks a bit.
He shook his head now, he shook his head and I heard someone ask please,
Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, hey, Mr. Bojangles, dance.

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John Denver has released many songs over the years besides Mr. Bojangles. John Denver released songs from 1969 to 1998 spanning across albums like Rhymes And Reasons, Take Me To Tomorrow, Whose Garden Was This?, Poems, Prayers And Promises, Aerie, Rocky Mountain High, Farewell Andromeda, Back Home Again, Rocky Mountain Christmas, An Evening With John Denver, Windsong, Spirit, I Want To Live, A Christmas Together, John Denver, Autograph, Some Days Are Diamonds, Seasons Of The Heart, Rocky Mountain Holiday, It's About Time, Dreamland Express, One World, Higher Ground, The Flower That Shattered The Stone, Christmas, Like A Lullaby, Different Directions, All Aboard!, and Forever, John. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by John Denver.

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About Lyrics and Mr. Bojangles by John Denver

When you decide to study the lyrics to Mr. Bojangles, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1970 song by John Denver. Some of the lyrics to Mr. Bojangles have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only John Denver and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

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

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