Lyrics to
Tenderness

This version of Tenderness was released by Steppenwolf in 1971.

Our About Steppenwolf page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Tenderness from 1971 as well as all of the other lyrics from Steppenwolf that we have in our lyrics database.

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

She tried to show me how to love
I bit her lips and bruised her arms
No I hadn’t learned Tenderness
She asked “what does love mean to you?”
I grabbed her hair and pulled her down
I looked in her eyes and I laughed
The love I feel is hard and fast
It’s for a face and for one night
I don’t need to own anyone

She said, she said all your women burn in your flame
But as it dies, as it dies, they’ll leave you and seek revenge

She laughed and said “You’ll go thru hell
You’ll live in lonely rooms unknown
And watch for my lost Tenderness”
I went from her to someone else and someone else
No, I couldn’t be satisfied

She said, she said all your women burn in your flame
And as it dies, as it dies, they’ll leave you and seek revenge

I wish that I could find her now
My love is soft, my love is warm
I’d take her to bed tenderly
Yes I’d take her to bed tenderly

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Steppenwolf has released many songs over the years besides Tenderness. Steppenwolf released songs from 1968 to 1990 spanning across albums like The Second, Steppenwolf, Monster, At Your Birthday Party, 7, For Ladies Only, Slow Flux, Hour Of The Wolf, Skullduggery, Wolftracks, Paradox, Rock & Roll Rebels, and Rise & Shine. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Steppenwolf.

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 Tenderness by Steppenwolf

The lyrics for Tenderness are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1971 song by Steppenwolf. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Tenderness 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 Tenderness - Steppenwolf and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

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

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