Lyrics to
Promises

This version of Promises was released by Eric Clapton in 1978.

Our About Eric Clapton page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Promises from 1978 as well as all of the other lyrics from Eric Clapton that we have in our lyrics database.

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I don’t care if you never come home,
I don’t mind if you just keep on
Rowing away on a distant sea,
‘Cause I don’t love you and you don’t love me.

You cause a commotion when you come to town;
You give ’em a smile and they melt.
Having lovers and friends is all good and fine,
But I don’t like yours and you don’t like mine.

La la, la la la la la.
La la, la la la la la.

I don’t care what you do at night,
Oh, and I don’t care how you get your delights.
I’m gonna leave you alone, I’ll just let it be,
I don’t love you and you don’t love me.

I got a problem. Can you relate?
I got a woman calling love hate.
We made a vow we’d always be friends.
How could we know that promises end?

I tried to love you for years upon years,
You refuse to take me for real.
It’s time you saw what I want you to see,
And I’d still love you if you’d just love me.

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Eric Clapton has released many songs over the years besides Promises. Eric Clapton released songs from 1970 to 2005 spanning across albums like Eric Clapton, 461 Ocean Boulevard, There's One In Every Crowd, No Reason To Cry, Slowhand, Backless, Another Ticket, Money And Cigarettes, Behind The Sun, August, Crossroads, Journeyman, Unplugged, From The Cradle, Pilgrim, Riding With The King, Reptile, Me And Mr. Johnson, and Back Home. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Eric Clapton.

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About Lyrics and Promises by Eric Clapton

The lyrics to Promises are the words, verses and chorus for the song released by Eric Clapton in 1978. Elements of the lyrics to Promises are both direct in meaning and also metaphorical with the real meanings of the song only known by Eric Clapton and any collaborating writers working on the lyrics for Promises back when it was created.

Some people have an interest in the etymology behind words and phrases. You can take apart the lyrics to Promises by Eric Clapton 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 Promises" means the words set to the music of Promises, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Eric Clapton. 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 Promises and the lyrics to Promises are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Eric Clapton who came here looking just for the lyrics to Promises, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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