Lyrics to
Sweet Lady Genevieve

This version of Sweet Lady Genevieve was released by The Kinks in 1973.

Our About The Kinks page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Sweet Lady Genevieve from 1973 as well as all of the other lyrics from The Kinks that we have in our lyrics database.

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Once under a scarlet sky I told you never ending lies,
But they were the words of a drunken vagabond
Who knew very well he would break your heart before long
Oh forgive me Genevieve.

Now I’ve come back to see Sweet Lady Genevieve,
This time I’ll give you some security
And I will make promises I can keep
So will you come back to me Sweet Lady Genevieve.

Let me rock you, hold you,
Take you in my arms.
Forgive me, please,
Smile away all your sadness, put your trust in me.

Oh if you come back to me Sweet Lady Genevieve,
I’m not the impetuous fool you used to know
I know that I used you and I hurt you so,
But that was so long ago Sweet Lady Genevieve.

Oh, love me,
Take me in your arms.
Let me rock you, hold you,
Smile away all your sadness, put your trust in me.

Once under a starry sky I led you on and told you lies
Drank too much whiskey on that hot summer night.
I acted so slyly because you were acting so shy,
Oh forgive me Genevieve.

If you come back to me Sweet Lady Genevieve,
You’re not the child who smiled so innocently
And I’m not the rogue that I used to be,
So will you come back to me Sweet Lady Genevieve.

Oh Genevieve, Oh Genevieve.

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The Kinks has released many songs over the years besides Sweet Lady Genevieve. The Kinks released songs from 1964 to 1993 spanning across albums like Kinks, Kinda Kinks, The Kink Kontroversy, Face To Face, Something Else, The Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire), Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One, Muswell Hillbillies, Percy, Everybody's In Show-Biz, Preservation Act I, Preservation Act II, Soap Opera, Schoolboys In Disgrace, Sleepwalker, Misfits, Low Budget, Give The People What They Want, State Of Confusion, Word Of Mouth, Think Visual, UK Jive, and Phobia. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Kinks.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1973 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Sweet Lady Genevieve by The Kinks

The lyrics to Sweet Lady Genevieve are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that The Kinks used when the song was created in 1973. The lyrics to Sweet Lady Genevieve have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only The Kinks 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 Sweet Lady Genevieve by The Kinks. 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 Lady Genevieve" means the words set to the music of Sweet Lady Genevieve, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Kinks. 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 Lady Genevieve and the lyrics to Sweet Lady Genevieve are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Kinks who came here looking just for the lyrics to Sweet Lady Genevieve, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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