Lyrics to
New York City

This version of New York City was released by John Lennon in 1972.

Visit the John Lennon Lyrics profile at Decade Lyrics - it has the New York City lyrics as well as the rest of the songs by John Lennon.

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

Standing on the corner
Just me and yoko ono
We was waiting for jerry to land
Up come a man with the guitar
in his hand
Singing “have a marijuana if you can”
His name was Davis Peel
And we found that he was real
He sangs”The pope smokes
dope everyday”
Up come a police man shoved
us up the street
Singin, “power to the
people today!”

NYC…NYC…NYC
Que pasa Ny?…Que pasa NY?

Well we went to max’s
Kansas City
Got down the nitty gritty
With the Elephants Memory
Band
Laid something down
As the news spread around
About the Plastic Ono
Elephants Memory Band!
Well we played some funky
boogie
And laid some tutti frutti
Singing “Long tall sally’s
a man”
Up come a preachman trying to be a teacher
Singing “God’s a red herring in grag!”

NYC…NYC…NYC
Que pasa Ny?…Que pasa NY?
Well we did the Staten
Island Ferry
Making movies for the telly
Played the fillmore and
Apollo for freedom,
Tried to shake our image
Just a cycling through
the village
But found that we had left it
back in london.
Well nobody came to bug us,
hustle ud or shove us
so we decided to make it
our home
If the man wants to shove
us out
We gonna jump and shout
The Statue of Liberty said,
“come!”

NYC…NYC…NYC
Que pasa Ny?…Que pasa NY?

NYC down in the village
What a bad-ass city!
Que pasa Ny?…Que pasa NY?

---

Want more lyrics and songs by John Lennon?

John Lennon has released many songs over the years besides New York City. John Lennon released songs from 1970 to 1988 spanning across albums like John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band, Imagine, Some Time In New York City, Mind Games, Walls And Bridges, Rock 'N' Roll, Shaved Fish, Double Fantasy, Milk And Honey, Live In New York City, and Imagine: John Lennon. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by John Lennon.

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

About Lyrics and New York City by John Lennon

The lyrics for New York City are defined as the words making up the song released by John Lennon in 1972. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to New York City have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only John Lennon 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 New York City by John Lennon 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 New York City" means the words set to the music of New York City, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by John Lennon. 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 New York City and the lyrics to New York City are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of John Lennon who came here looking just for the lyrics to New York City, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

More Songs & Lyrics by John Lennon

Visit our John Lennon profile for more John Lennon songs, lyrics & info!

)