Lyrics to
When I Paint My Masterpiece

This version of When I Paint My Masterpiece was released by The Band in 1971.

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Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble,
ancient footprints are everywhere.
You could almost think that you’re seeing double,
On the cold, dark night on the Spanish Stairs.
Gotta hurry on back to my hotel room,
Where I got me a date with a pretty little girl from Greece.
She promised she’d be there with me,
When I paint my masterpiece.

Oh, the hours we spent, inside the Coliseum.
Dodging lions, and a-wasting time,
oh those mighty kings of the jungle, I could hardly stand to see ’em
Yes it sure has been a long, hard drive.
Train wheels a-running thru the back of my memory,
When I ran on a hilltop following a pack of wild geese,
Someday everything is gonna sound like a rhapsody
When I paint my masterpiece.

Sailing round the world in a dirty gondola,
Oh to be back in the land of, Coca-cola.
Well I left Rome, and landed in Brussels,
On a plane ride so bumpy that I almost cried,
Clergy men in uniform, and young girls pulling mussels,
Everyone was there to greet me when I stepped inside,
Newspaper men eating candy,
Had to be held down by big police.
Someday, its gonna be different,
When I paint my masterpiece.

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The Band has released many songs over the years besides When I Paint My Masterpiece. The Band released songs from 1968 to 2002 spanning across albums like Music From Big Pink, The Band, Stage Fright, Cahoots, Moondog Matinee, Northern Lights - Southern Cross, Islands, Jericho, High On The Hog, Jubilation, and The Last Waltz. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Band.

If you're a fan of the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and When I Paint My Masterpiece by The Band

The lyrics to When I Paint My Masterpiece are the words, verses and chorus for the song released by The Band in 1971. Elements of the lyrics to When I Paint My Masterpiece are both direct in meaning and also metaphorical with the real meanings of the song only known by The Band and any collaborating writers working on the lyrics for When I Paint My Masterpiece back when it was created.

Some people have an interest in the etymology behind words and phrases. You can take apart the lyrics to When I Paint My Masterpiece by The Band in a number of ways. 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 When I Paint My Masterpiece" means the words set to the music of When I Paint My Masterpiece, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Band. 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 When I Paint My Masterpiece and the lyrics to When I Paint My Masterpiece are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Band who came here looking just for the lyrics to When I Paint My Masterpiece, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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