Lyrics to
Prisoners

This version of Prisoners was released by John Denver in 1972.

Our John Denver Songs profile has Prisoners lyrics from 1972 and most if not all of the lyrics by John Denver that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

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

Josie works the counter at the downtown five and dime, anything at all to help her pass the time.
Her mama keeps the baby and grandpa rambles on about the good times playing in his mind.
It’s a hard life living when you’re lonely, it’s a long night sleeping alone.
It’s a hard time waiting for tomorrow, it’s a long, long way home.

Josie spends the evening with the people in the pages of the paperback she picked up at the store.
Or sometimes it’s the TV, or she’ll try to write a letter, oh, they don’t come too often anymore.
It’s a hard life living when you’re lonely, it’s a long night sleeping alone.
It’s a hard time waiting for tomorrow, it’s a long, long way home.

I stare at the gray walls before me, I see her face in the stone.
I try to imagine our baby, I wish they would let me go home. I wish they would let me go home.
(I wish they would let me go home) It’s a hard life living when you’re lonely,
(I wish they would let me go home) It’s a long night sleeping alone.
(I wish they would let me go home) It’s a hard time waiting for tomorrow,
(I wish they would let me go home) It’s a long, long way home.
(I wish they would let me go home) It’s a long, long way home.
(I wish they would let me go home) Bringing me and the other boys home,
(I wish they would let me go home) Bringing me and the other boys home.

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John Denver has released many songs over the years besides Prisoners. John Denver released songs from 1969 to 1998 spanning across albums like Rhymes And Reasons, Take Me To Tomorrow, Whose Garden Was This?, Poems, Prayers And Promises, Aerie, Rocky Mountain High, Farewell Andromeda, Back Home Again, Rocky Mountain Christmas, An Evening With John Denver, Windsong, Spirit, I Want To Live, A Christmas Together, John Denver, Autograph, Some Days Are Diamonds, Seasons Of The Heart, Rocky Mountain Holiday, It's About Time, Dreamland Express, One World, Higher Ground, The Flower That Shattered The Stone, Christmas, Like A Lullaby, Different Directions, All Aboard!, and Forever, John. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by John Denver.

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 Prisoners by John Denver

The lyrics to Prisoners are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that John Denver used when the song was created in 1972. The lyrics to Prisoners have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only John Denver 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 Prisoners by John Denver. 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 Prisoners" means the words set to the music of Prisoners, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by John Denver. 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 Prisoners and the lyrics to Prisoners are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of John Denver who came here looking just for the lyrics to Prisoners, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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