Lyrics to
St. James Infirmary

This version of St. James Infirmary was released by Joe Cocker in 1972.

Our About Joe Cocker page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for St. James Infirmary from 1972 as well as all of the other lyrics from Joe Cocker that we have in our lyrics database.

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I went down to st james infirmary
To see my baby there
She was stretched out on a cold white table
So sweet…so lean…and so fair

Let her go…let her go…god bless her
Wherever she may be
She can search the whole wide world
But she’ll never find another man like me

When I die you can bury me in plain lace shoes
Stetson with a twenty dollar hat
And put a thirty dollar gold piece on my watch chain
And let the fellas know that I died standing pat

I went down to st james infirmary
And I stole my baby back
She was stretched out on a long white table
So sweet…so cold…and so fair

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Joe Cocker has released many songs over the years besides St. James Infirmary. Joe Cocker released songs from 1969 to 2007 spanning across albums like With A Little Help From My Friends, Joe Cocker!, Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Joe Cocker, I Can Stand A Little Rain, Jamaica Say You Will, Stingray, Luxury You Can Afford, Sheffield Steel, Civilized Man, Cocker, Unchain My Heart, One Night Of Sin, Night Calls, Have A Little Faith, Organic, Across From Midnight, No Ordinary World, Respect Yourself, Heart & Soul, and Hymn For My Soul. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Joe Cocker.

If you're a fan of 1970s music looking for more songs from 1972 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and St. James Infirmary by Joe Cocker

The lyrics to St. James Infirmary are the words, verses and chorus for the song released by Joe Cocker in 1972. Elements of the lyrics to St. James Infirmary are both direct in meaning and also metaphorical with the real meanings of the song only known by Joe Cocker and any collaborating writers working on the lyrics for St. James Infirmary back when it was created.

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

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