Lyrics to
Off Night Backstreet

This version of Off Night Backstreet was released by Joni Mitchell in 1977.

Our About Joni Mitchell page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Off Night Backstreet from 1977 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.

Maybe I’m just kidding myself when I say I love you
I don’t know–
Loving without trusting
You get–frostbite and sunstroke
I wish I felt nothing!
You pimp–laughing and strutting her to my chartered seat
Your old off night back street

It’s been stinger to stinger, darling
It’s been heart to heart
You still keep me from finishing
Any new love I start
Now she’s moved in with you
She’s keeping your house neat
And your sheets sweet
And I’m your off night back street

I can feel your fingers
Feeling my face
There are some lines you put there
And some you erase
Maybe I’m just dramatizing
I don’t care
It’s home–it can be heaven
When we play fair
But these sentimental journeys
Late at night–
High in some back room you’re calling me
To be your off night back street

You give me such pleasure
You bring me such pain
Who left her long black hair
In our bathtub drain?

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Joni Mitchell has released many songs over the years besides Off Night Backstreet. 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 popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Off Night Backstreet by Joni Mitchell

The lyrics to Off Night Backstreet are the words, verses and chorus for the song released by Joni Mitchell in 1977. Elements of the lyrics to Off Night Backstreet are both direct in meaning and also metaphorical with the real meanings of the song only known by Joni Mitchell and any collaborating writers working on the lyrics for Off Night Backstreet back when it was created.

Some people have an interest in the etymology behind words and phrases. You can take apart the lyrics to Off Night Backstreet by Joni Mitchell in a number of 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 Off Night Backstreet" means the words set to the music of Off Night Backstreet, 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 Off Night Backstreet and the lyrics to Off Night Backstreet 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 Off Night Backstreet, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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