Lyrics to
Portrait (He Knew)

This version of Portrait (He Knew) was released by Kansas in 1977.

Our Kansas Songs profile has Portrait (He Knew) lyrics from 1977 and most if not all of the lyrics by Kansas that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

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

He had a thousand ideas, you might have heard his name
He lived alone with his vision
Not looking for fortune or fame
Never said too much to speak of
He was off on another plane
The words that he said were a mystery
Nobody’s sure he was sane

But he knew, he knew more than me or you
No one could see his view, Oh where was he going to

He was in search of an answer
The nature of what we are
He was trying to do it a new way
He was bright as a star
But nobody understood him
“His numbers are not the way”
He’s lost in the deepest enigma
Which no one’s unraveled today

But he knew, he knew more than me or you
No one could see his view, Oh where was he going to
And he tried, but before he could tell us he died
When he left us the people cried,
Oh where was he going to?

He had a different idea
A glimpse of the master plan
He could see into the future
A true visionary man
But there’s something he never told us
It died when he went away
If only he could have been with us
No telling what he might say

But he knew, he knew more than me or you
No one could see his view
Oh, where was he going to
But he knew, you could tell by the picture he drew
It was totally something new,
Oh where was he going to?

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Kansas has released many songs over the years besides Portrait (He Knew). Kansas released songs from 1974 to 2000 spanning across albums like Kansas, Masque, Song For America, Leftoverture, Point Of Know Return, Monolith, Audio-Visions, Vinyl Confessions, Drastic Measures, Power, In The Spirit Of Things, Freaks Of Nature, Always Never The Same, and Somewhere To Elsewhere. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Kansas.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Portrait (He Knew) by Kansas

The lyrics for Portrait (He Knew) are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1977 song by Kansas. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Portrait (He Knew) 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 Portrait (He Knew) - Kansas 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 Portrait (He Knew) by Kansas 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 Portrait (He Knew)" means the words set to the music of Portrait (He Knew), or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Kansas. 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 Portrait (He Knew) and the lyrics to Portrait (He Knew) are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Kansas who came here looking just for the lyrics to Portrait (He Knew), but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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