Lyrics to
What You Got

This version of What You Got was released by John Lennon in 1974.

Our About John Lennon page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for What You Got from 1974 as well as all of the other lyrics from John Lennon that we have in our lyrics database.

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

Don’t wanna be a drag, everybody gotta bag
I know you know, ’bout the emperor’s clothes

You don’t know what you got, until you lose it
You don’t know what you got, until you lose it
You don’t know what you got, until you lose it
Oh baby, baby, baby gimme one more chance

Well it’s Saturday night and I just gotta rip it up
Sunday morning I just gotta give it up
Come Monday momma and I just gotta run away
You know it’s such a drag to face another day

You don’t know what you got, until you lose it
You don’t know what you got, until you lose it
You don’t know what you got, until you lose it
Oh baby, baby, baby gimme one more chance

You know the more it change, the more it stays the same
You gotta hang on in, you gotta cut the string

You don’t know what you got, until you lose it
You don’t know what you got, until you lose it
You don’t know, you don’t know what you got, until you lose it
Oh baby, baby, baby gimme one more chance

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John Lennon has released many songs over the years besides What You Got. John Lennon released songs from 1970 to 1988 spanning across albums like John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band, Imagine, Some Time In New York City, Mind Games, Walls And Bridges, Rock 'N' Roll, Shaved Fish, Double Fantasy, Milk And Honey, Live In New York City, and Imagine: John Lennon. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by John Lennon.

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About Lyrics and What You Got by John Lennon

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

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

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