Lyrics to
San Diego Serenade

This version of San Diego Serenade was released by Tom Waits in 1974.

Our Decade Lyrics Tom Waits profile has all of the San Diego Serenade lyrics from 1974 and many more songs from the Tom Waits discography that we have on file.

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

I never saw the morning ’til I stayed up all night
I never saw the sunshine ’til you turned out the light
I never saw my hometown until I stayed away too long
I never heard the melody, until I needed a song.

I never saw the white line, ’til I was leaving you behind
I never knew I needed you ’til I was caught up in a bind
I never spoke ‘I love you’ ’til I cursed you in vain,
I never felt my heartstrings until I nearly went insane.

I never saw the east coast ’til I move to the west
I never saw the moonlight until it shone off your breast
I never saw your heart ’til someone tried to steal, tried to steal it away
I never saw your tears until they rolled down your face.

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Tom Waits has released many songs over the years besides San Diego Serenade. Tom Waits released songs from 1973 to 2004 spanning across albums like Closing Time, The Heart Of Saturday Night, Nighthawks At The Diner, Small Change, Foreign Affairs, Blue Valentine, Heartattack And Vine, Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, The Early Years Vol. 1, Bone Machine, The Black Rider, The Early Years Vol. 2, Mule Variations, Blood Money, Alice, and Real Gone. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Tom Waits.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and San Diego Serenade by Tom Waits

The lyrics for San Diego Serenade are defined as the words making up the song released by Tom Waits in 1974. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to San Diego Serenade have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Tom Waits and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to San Diego Serenade by Tom Waits if you think through it. 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 San Diego Serenade" means the words set to the music of San Diego Serenade, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Tom Waits. 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 San Diego Serenade and the lyrics to San Diego Serenade are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Tom Waits who came here looking just for the lyrics to San Diego Serenade, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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