Lyrics to
Sweet Baby James

Released by James Taylor in 1970
From the Album: Sweet Baby James |

This version of Sweet Baby James was released by James Taylor in 1970.

Our James Taylor Songs profile has Sweet Baby James lyrics from 1970 and most if not all of the lyrics by James Taylor that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

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

There is a young cowboy, he lives on the range. His horse and his cattle are his only companions.
He works in the saddle and he sleeps in the canyons, waiting for summer, his pastures to change.
And as the moon rises he sits by his fire, thinking about women and glasses of beer.
And closing his eyes as the doggies retire, he sings out a song which is soft but it’s clear
as if maybe someone could hear…

Goodnight you moon light ladies, rock-a-bye sweet baby James.
Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose, won’t you let me go down in my dreams?
And rock-a-bye sweet baby James.

Now the first of December was covered with snow
and so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston.
Though the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frosting,
with ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go.
There’s a song that they sing when they take to the highway,
a song that they sing when they take to the sea,
a song that they sing of their home in the sky, maybe you can believe it if it helps you to sleep,
but singing works just fine for me.

So, goodnight you moon light ladies, rock-a-bye sweet baby James.
Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose, won’t you let me go down in my dreams?
And rock-a-bye sweet baby James.


Want more lyrics and songs by James Taylor?

James Taylor has released many songs over the years besides Sweet Baby James. James Taylor released songs from 1968 to 2002 spanning across albums like James Taylor, Sweet Baby James, Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon, One Man Dog, Walking Man, Gorilla, In The Pocket, JT, Flag, Dad Loves His Work, That's Why I'm Here, Never Die Young, New Moon Shine, Hourglass, and October Road. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by James Taylor.

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

About Lyrics and Sweet Baby James by James Taylor

The lyrics for Sweet Baby James are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1970 song by James Taylor. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Sweet Baby James have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Sweet Baby James - James Taylor and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

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If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Sweet Baby James by James Taylor in multiple 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 Sweet Baby James" means the words set to the music of Sweet Baby James, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by James Taylor. 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 Sweet Baby James and the lyrics to Sweet Baby James are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of James Taylor who came here looking just for the lyrics to Sweet Baby James, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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