Lyrics to
Overture – Cotton Avenue

This version of Overture – Cotton Avenue was released by Joni Mitchell in 1977.

Our About Joni Mitchell page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Overture – Cotton Avenue from 1977 as well as all of the other lyrics from Joni Mitchell that we have in our lyrics database.

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A red sun came rolling down a grey sky
And the frogs and dogs and night birds then
Started up singing sweet country lullaby
You see that patch of city lights-
Somewhere in there’s Cotton Avenue-
That’s where I’m going to take myself tonight
With a spit shine on my dancing shoes
If you got a place like that to go
You just have to go there
If you got no place special
Well then, you just go no place special
I guess it’s just the summer in the young blood
Ripe and juicy in the young blood
Teasing to go down to …
Cotton Avenue
To hear the shiny shiny music
See all the shiny people dancing to it
Anytime you go to …
Cotton Avenue
If you got a place like that to go
You know you got to go there
If you got no place special
Well then, you just go no place special
You see that summer storm brewing in the southern sky
By the time it hits here I’ll be dancing high and dry
To rhythm and blues
On Cotton Avenue
Poor boys’ll be hanging around outside in the street
They got all the latest words
They’re dancing to the latest beat
While they’re hustling and sizing you
On Cotton Avenue
If you got a place like that to go
You just have to go there
If you’ve got no place special
Well my dear
You just so no place … special

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Joni Mitchell has released many songs over the years besides Overture – Cotton Avenue. 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 the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Overture – Cotton Avenue by Joni Mitchell

The lyrics to Overture – Cotton Avenue are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Joni Mitchell used when the song was created in 1977. The lyrics to Overture – Cotton Avenue have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Joni Mitchell and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Overture – Cotton Avenue by Joni Mitchell. 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 Overture – Cotton Avenue" means the words set to the music of Overture – Cotton Avenue, 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 Overture – Cotton Avenue and the lyrics to Overture – Cotton Avenue 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 Overture – Cotton Avenue, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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