Lyrics to
The Great Suburban Showdown

This version of The Great Suburban Showdown was released by Billy Joel in 1974.

Our About Billy Joel page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for The Great Suburban Showdown from 1974 as well as all of the other lyrics from Billy Joel that we have in our lyrics database.

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Flyin’ east on a plane
Drinkin’ all that free champagne
I guess I saw this comin’ down the line
And I know it should be fun
But I think I should’ve packed my gun
Got that old suburban showdown in my mind

Sit around with the folks
Tell the same old tired jokes
Bored to death on Sunday afternoon
Mom and Dad, me and you
And the outdoor barbecue
Think I’m gonna hide out in my room

I’ve been gone for a while
Made some changes in my style
And they say you can’t go home anymore
Well the streets all look the same
And I’ll have to play the game
We’ll all sit around in the kitchen chairs
With the TV on and the neighbors there

Out in the yard
Where my Daddy worked so hard
He never lets the crab grass grow too high
Oh, the place hasn’t changed
And that’s why I’m gonna feel so strange
But I’ll have to face the music bye and bye

I’ve been gone for a while
Made some changes in my style
And they say you can’t go home anymore
Well the streets all look the same
And I’ll have to play the game
We’ll all sit around in the kitchen chairs
With the TV on and the neighbors there

Drive into town
When this big bird touches down
I’m only comin’ home to say goodbye
Then I’m gone with the wind
And I won’t be seen again
Till that great suburban showdown in the sky
Till that great suburban showdown in the sky

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Billy Joel has released many songs over the years besides The Great Suburban Showdown. Billy Joel released songs from 1971 to 1993 spanning across albums like Cold Spring Harbor, Piano Man, Streetlife Serenade, Turnstiles, The Stranger, 52nd Street, Glass Houses, The Nylon Curtain, An Innocent Man, The Bridge, Storm Front, and River Of Dreams. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Billy Joel.

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About Lyrics and The Great Suburban Showdown by Billy Joel

The lyrics for The Great Suburban Showdown are defined as the words making up the song released by Billy Joel in 1974. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to The Great Suburban Showdown have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Billy Joel and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to The Great Suburban Showdown by Billy Joel if you think through it. 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 Suburban Showdown" means the words set to the music of The Great Suburban Showdown, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Billy Joel. 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 Suburban Showdown and the lyrics to The Great Suburban Showdown are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Billy Joel who came here looking just for the lyrics to The Great Suburban Showdown, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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