Lyrics to
Southern Man

This version of Southern Man was released by Stills, Nash & Young Crosby in 1971.

Our Decade Lyrics Stills, Nash & Young Crosby profile has all of the Southern Man lyrics from 1971 and many more songs from the Stills, Nash & Young Crosby discography that we have on file.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Stills, Nash & Young Crosby or about the 1970s in general.

Southern man
Better keep your head
Don’t forget
What your good book said
Southern change
Gonna come at last
Now your crosses
Are burning fast
Southern man

I saw cotton
And I saw black
Tall white mansions
And little shacks.
Southern man
When will you
Pay them back?
I heard screamin’
And bullwhips cracking
How long? How long?

Southern man
Better keep your head
Don’t forget
What your good book said
Southern change
Gonna come at last
Now your crosses
Are burning fast
Southern man

Lily Belle,
Your hair is golden brown
I’ve seen your black man
Comin’ round
Swear by God
I’m gonna cut him down!
I heard screamin’
And bullwhips cracking
How long? How long?

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Stills, Nash & Young Crosby has released many songs over the years besides Southern Man. Stills, Nash & Young Crosby released songs from 1970 to 1999 spanning across albums like Deja Vu, 4 Way Street, American Dream, and Looking Forward. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Stills, Nash & Young Crosby.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Southern Man by Stills, Nash & Young Crosby

The lyrics to Southern Man are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Stills, Nash & Young Crosby used when the song was created in 1971. The lyrics to Southern Man have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Stills, Nash & Young Crosby 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 Southern Man by Stills, Nash & Young Crosby. 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 Southern Man" means the words set to the music of Southern Man, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Stills, Nash & Young Crosby. 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 Southern Man and the lyrics to Southern Man are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Stills, Nash & Young Crosby who came here looking just for the lyrics to Southern Man, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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