Lyrics to
The Great Deception

This version of The Great Deception was released by Van Morrison in 1973.

Our Decade Lyrics Van Morrison profile has all of the The Great Deception lyrics from 1973 and many more songs from the Van Morrison discography that we have on file.

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

Did you ever hear about the great deception
Well the plastic revolutionaries take the money and run
Have you ever been down to love city
Where they rip you off with a smile
And it don’t take a gun

Don’t it hurt so bad in love city
Don’t it make you not want to bother at all
And don’t they look so self righteous
When they pin you up against the wall

Did you ever, ever see the people
With the tear drops in their eyes
I just can’t stand it, stand it no how
Living in this world of lies

Did you ever hear about the rock and roll singers
Got three or four Cadillacs
Saying power to the people, dance to the music
Wants you to pat him on the back

Have you ever heard about the great Rembrandt
Have you ever heard about how he could paint
And he didn’t have enough money for his brushes
And they thought it was rather quaint

But you know it’s no use repeating
And you know it’s no use to think about it
‘Cause when you stop to think about it
You don’t need it

Have you ever heard about the great Hollywood motion picture actor
Who knew more than they did
And the newspapers didn’t cover the story
Just decided to keep it hid.

Somebody started saying it was an inside job
Whatever happened to him?
Last time they saw him down on the Bow’ry
With his lip hanging off an old rusty bottle of gin

Have you ever heard about the so-called hippies
Down on the far side of the tracks
They take the eyeballs straight out of your head
Say son, kid, do you want your eyeballs back

Did you ever see the people
With the tear drops in their eyes
Just can’t stand it no how
Living in this world of lies

---

Van Morrison has released many songs over the years besides The Great Deception. Van Morrison released songs from 1967 to 2005 spanning across albums like Blowin' Your Mind!, Astral Weeks, Moondance, His Band And The Street Choir, Tupelo Honey, Saint Dominic's Preview, Hard Nose The Highway, It's Too Late To Stop Now, Veedon Fleece, A Period Of Transition, Wavelength, Into The Music, Common One, Beautiful Vision, Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart, A Sense Of Wonder, No Guru, No Method, No Teacher, Poetic Champions Compose, Irish Heartbeat, Avalon Sunset, Enlightenment, Hymns To The Silence, Too Long In Exile, Days Like This, How Long Has This Been Going On, Tell Me Something: The Songs Of Mose Allison, The Healing Game, The Philosopher's Stone, Back On Top, The Skiffle Sessions - Live In Belfast, You Win Again, Down The Road, What's Wrong With This Picture?, and Magic Time. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Van Morrison.

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

About Lyrics and The Great Deception by Van Morrison

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

More Songs & Lyrics by Van Morrison

Visit our Van Morrison profile for more Van Morrison songs, lyrics & info!

)