Lyrics to
The Promised Land

This version of The Promised Land was released by James Taylor in 1974.

Our James Taylor Songs profile has The Promised Land lyrics from 1974 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.

Left my home in Norfolk, Virginia, California on my mind.
Straddled that Greyhound and rode it into Raleigh and on across Caroline.
We stopped in Charlotte but we bypassed Rockhill, we never was a minute late.
We were ninety miles out of Atlanta by sundown rolling out of Georgia state.

Had some motor trouble that turned into a struggle half way across Alabam.
That hound broke and left us all stranded in downtown Birmingham.
So right away I bought me a through train ticket right across Mississippi clean,
And I was on that Special Flyer out of Birmingham smoking into New Orleans.

Someone’s got to help me get out of Louisiana, just to help me get to Houston town.
There’s an uncle there who cares a little about me and he won’t let the poor boy down.
Sure as you’re born, he bought me a silk suit, put some luggage in my hand.
And I woke up high over Albuquerque on a jet to the Promised Land.

Working on a T-Bone steak, a la carte, flying over to the Golden State.
When the pilot told us that in thirteen minutes he would have us at the terminal gate.
Swing down chariot, come down easy, taxi to the terminal dome.
Cut your engines and cool your wings and let me make it to the telephone.

Los Angeles give me Norfolk, Virginia, tidewater four-ten-O-nine.
Tell the folks back home this is the Promised Land calling,
and the poor boy is on the line.

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Want more lyrics and songs by James Taylor?

James Taylor has released many songs over the years besides The Promised Land. 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 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and The Promised Land by James Taylor

When you decide to study the lyrics to The Promised Land, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1974 song by James Taylor. Some of the lyrics to The Promised Land have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only James Taylor and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to The Promised Land if you take apart the structure of the words. 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 Promised Land" means the words set to the music of The Promised Land, 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 The Promised Land and the lyrics to The Promised Land 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 The Promised Land, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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