Lyrics to
The Race Is On

This version of The Race Is On was released by Waylon Jennings in 1970.

Our Decade Lyrics Waylon Jennings profile has all of the The Race Is On lyrics from 1970 and many more songs from the Waylon Jennings discography that we have on file.

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

I feel tears wellin’ up cold and deep inside
Like my heart’s sprung a big break
And the stab of loneliness, sharp and painful
That I may never shake.

You might say I was taking it hard
Oh, she wrote me off with a call
But don’t you wager that I’ll hide the sorrow
When I may break right down and bawl.

Well, the race is on
And here comes pride up the backstretch
Heartaches a-going to the inside
My tears are holding back
And tryin’ not to fall
My heart’s out of the running
True love’s scratched for another’s sake
The race is on and it looks like heartaches
And the winner loses all.

One day I ventured in love, never once suspectin’
What the final results would be
How I lived in fear of waking up each mornin’
And finding that you’re gone from me.

There’s aches and pain in my heart
For today was the one that I hated to face
Somebody new came up to win her
I wound up in second place.

Well, the race is on and here comes pride
Up the backstretch
Heartaches a-going to the inside
My tears are holding back
And tryin’ not to fall
My heart’s out of the running
True love’s scratched for another’s sake
The race is on and it looks like heartaches
And the winner loses all…

---

Waylon Jennings has released many songs over the years besides The Race Is On. Waylon Jennings released songs from 1964 to 1972 spanning across albums like JD's, Leavin' Town, Folk-Country, Nashville Rebel, Waylon Sings Ol' Harlan, The One And Only, Love Of The Common People, Only The Greatest, Jewels, Hangin' On, Just To Satisfy You, Country-Folk, Waylon, Singer Of Sad Songs, Don't Think Twice, The Taker/Tulsa, Cedartown, Georgia, and Good Hearted Woman. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Waylon Jennings.

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

About Lyrics and The Race Is On by Waylon Jennings

When you decide to study the lyrics to The Race Is On, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1970 song by Waylon Jennings. Some of the lyrics to The Race Is On have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Waylon Jennings and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to The Race Is On 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 Race Is On" means the words set to the music of The Race Is On, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Waylon Jennings. 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 Race Is On and the lyrics to The Race Is On are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Waylon Jennings who came here looking just for the lyrics to The Race Is On, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

More Songs & Lyrics by Waylon Jennings

Visit our Waylon Jennings profile for more Waylon Jennings songs, lyrics & info!

)