Lyrics to
My Old Man

This version of My Old Man was released by Joni Mitchell in 1971.

Our About Joni Mitchell page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for My Old Man from 1971 as well as all of the other lyrics from Joni Mitchell that we have in our lyrics database.

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

My old man
He’s a singer in the park
He’s a walker in the rain
He’s a dancer in the dark
We don’t need no piece of paper
From the city hall
Keeping us tied and true
No, my old man
Keeping away my blues

He’s my sunshine in the morning
He’s my fireworks at the end of the day
He’s the warmest chord I ever heard
Play that warm chord, play and stay baby
We don’t need no piece of paper
From the city hall
Keeping us tied and true
My old man
Keeping away my blues

But when he’s gone
Me and them lonesome blues collide
The bed’s too big
The frying pan’s too wide

Then he comes home
And he takes me in his loving arms
And he tells me all his troubles
And he tells me all my charms
We don’t need no piece of paper
From the city hall
Keeping us tied and true
No, my old man
Keeping away my blues

But when he’s gone
Me and them lonesome blues collide
The bed’s too big
The frying pan’s too wide

My old man
He’s a singer in the park
He’s a walker in the rain
He’s a dancer in the dark
We don’t need no piece of paper
From the city hall
Keeping us tied and true
No, my old man
Keeping away my lonesome blues

---

Want more lyrics and songs by Joni Mitchell?

Joni Mitchell has released many songs over the years besides My Old Man. Joni Mitchell released songs from 1968 to 2007 spanning across albums like Song To A Seagull, Clouds, Ladies Of The Canyon, Blue, For The Roses, Court And Spark, The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mingus, Wild Things Run Fast, Dog Eat Dog, Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm, Night Ride Home, Turbulent Indigo, Taming The Tiger, Both Sides Now, and Shine. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Joni Mitchell.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and My Old Man by Joni Mitchell

The lyrics for My Old Man are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1971 song by Joni Mitchell. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to My Old Man 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 My Old Man - Joni Mitchell 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 My Old Man by Joni Mitchell 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 My Old Man" means the words set to the music of My Old Man, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Joni Mitchell. 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 My Old Man and the lyrics to My Old Man are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Joni Mitchell who came here looking just for the lyrics to My Old Man, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

More Songs & Lyrics by Joni Mitchell

Visit our Joni Mitchell profile for more Joni Mitchell songs, lyrics & info!

)