Lyrics to
Stranger

This version of Stranger was released by The Hollies in 1976.

Our The Hollies Songs profile has Stranger lyrics from 1976 and most if not all of the lyrics by The Hollies that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

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

Down down down town, east side of the river
Bowery boys are living off the street
There stands a stranger all dressed in black
He’s looking for someone – he’s gonna knife ’em in the back
Hit man, G-man, con man, watch it man, he might be from the CIA
Sneaky Pete’s using his feet, getting off the street ‘cos
He’s got something to hide

Danger, there’s a stranger
Intruding in your own backyard
But stranger, there’s a danger
Don’t come across nobody hard

So tough mixing it rough down in Harlem
There’s no honky boys for miles around
But there’s that stranger all dressed in white
He’s looking for someone
He’s gonna show ’em the light, yeah
He’s gonna show ’em the light, oh yeah

Don’t feel safe using the face of Fifth Avenue
Pin stripe suits ain’t no disguise if you’re not a man that’s true
Hit man, G-man, con man, watch it man, he might be from the CIA
Sneaky Pete’s using his feet, getting off the street ‘cos
He’s got something to hide

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The Hollies has released many songs over the years besides Stranger. The Hollies released songs from 1964 to 1998 spanning across albums like Stay With The Hollies, In The Hollies Style, Hollies, For Certain Because, Would You Believe?, Butterfly, Evolution, Hollies Sing Dylan, Hollies Sing Hollies, Confessions Of The Mind, Distant Light, Romany, Another Night, Russian Roulette, Write On, A Crazy Steal, 5317704, Buddy Holly, What Goes Around, The Hollies At Abbey Road 1963-1966, and The Hollies At Abbey Road 1966-1970. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Hollies.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1976 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Stranger by The Hollies

When you decide to study the lyrics to Stranger, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1976 song by The Hollies. Some of the lyrics to Stranger have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only The Hollies and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Stranger if you take apart the structure of the words. 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 Stranger" means the words set to the music of Stranger, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Hollies. 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 Stranger and the lyrics to Stranger are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Hollies who came here looking just for the lyrics to Stranger, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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