Lyrics to
Why Don’t You Try

This version of Why Don’T You Try was released by Leonard Cohen in 1974.

Our Decade Lyrics Leonard Cohen profile has all of the Why Don’T You Try lyrics from 1974 and many more songs from the Leonard Cohen discography that we have on file.

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

Why don’t you try to do without him?
Why don’t you try to live alone?
Do you really need his hands for your passion?
Do you really need his heart for your throne?
Do you need his labour for your baby?
Do you need his beast for the bone?
Do you need to hold a leash to be a lady?
I know you’re going to make, make it on your own.
Why don’t your try to forget him?
Just open up your dainty little hand.
You know this life is filled with many sweet companions,
many satisfying one-night stands.
Do you want to be the ditch around a tower?
Do you want to be the moonlight in his cave?
Do you want to give your blessing to his power
as he goes whistling past his daddy, past his daddy’s grave.

I’d like to take you take you to the ceremony,
well, that is if I remember the way.
You see Jack and Jill they’re going to join their misery,
I’m afraid it’s time for everyone to pray.
You can see they’ve finally taken cover,
they’re willing, yeah they’re willing to obey.
Their vows are difficult, they’re for each other,
so let nobody put a loophole, a loophole in their way.

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Leonard Cohen has released many songs over the years besides Why Don’T You Try. Leonard Cohen released songs from 1967 to 2004 spanning across albums like Songs Of Leonard Cohen, Songs From A Room, Songs Of Love And Hate, New Skin For The Old Ceremony, Death Of A Ladies' Man, Recent Songs, Various Positions, I'm Your Man, The Future, Ten New Songs, and Dear Heather. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Leonard Cohen.

If you're a fan of lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Why Don’T You Try by Leonard Cohen

The lyrics for Why Don’T You Try are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1974 song by Leonard Cohen. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Why Don’T You Try have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Why Don’T You Try - Leonard Cohen and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Why Don’T You Try by Leonard Cohen in multiple 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 Why Don’T You Try" means the words set to the music of Why Don’T You Try, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Leonard Cohen. 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 Why Don’T You Try and the lyrics to Why Don’T You Try are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Leonard Cohen who came here looking just for the lyrics to Why Don’T You Try, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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