The river is deep and the river is wide, and the girl that I love is on the other side. She wants to move to Kansas City: “Move, pretty baby, where the sky is so blue.” She's walking down Ellum, turning down Main, trying to find someone to sell her cocaine. She wants to move to Kansas City: “Move, pretty baby, where the sky is so blue.” With a dayful of promises dead on her lips, Mark 15:34 tucked next to her hip, she wants to move to Kansas City: “Move, pretty baby, where the sky is so blue.” I jumped in the water and started to drown. I thought of her walking and turned back around. I want to move to Kansas City, where the sky is so blue. With her pair of old wings that opened just once, she can walk on two feet now, she can go where she wants. She can move to Kansas City, where the sky is so blue. And I'll tell you one thing that you should never do - never let a woman tell you she loves you. She'll call you “baby,” she'll look in your eye, then she'll get on that airplane and wave “bye bye bye bye bye bye, baby.” And if I could believe what I want to believe, I'd hold you all close and take you with me, all of you to Kansas City, where the sky is so blue.


Lyrics submitted by PLANES

Kansas City Lyrics as written by Mike Stoller Jerry Leiber

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Royalty Network, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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Kansas City song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    This song is beautiful all around. The lyrics remind me of someone I know who lives very far away. For me, I interrept the river analogy as the distance separating the two who are in love. I get chills everytime hearing him sing "bye bye bye bye bye bye."

    tothebeaton April 15, 2003   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Mark 15:34-

    And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

    Kabukistaron December 02, 2004   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    would it be so hard, would it be so terrible, for him to just once, JUST ONCE, say "move to kansas city where the skies are so pretty"

    just once. he'd only have to say it once

    battaryacidon January 17, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I think half of this song is about happiness,or really just searching for happiness. "Move to Kansas City ,pretty- baby, where the skies are so blue..." To me I see that as a pursuit of happiness. Finding your soul-mate" could be seen as the pretty- baby bit. Kansas city could be finding the place you finally choose to settle down in and live out your life. "Skies so blue," I definitely see that as living out the rest of your days in happiness and joy. Now- the "never let a woman tell you she loves you.." bit,. that's tricky. It really seems to defeat that idea of happiness that I put forth... It seems that the woman searching for cocaine is the same girl that is leaving on that airplane. I guess the girl seems to leave the guy since she "can walk on two feet now, she can go where she wants.." She leaves the man in search of her own happiness. She was the man's happiness, where as he was not. Maybe when she was with this man, she was addicted to cocaine and lived the life of an addict. She wasn't happy with her life and moved on to Kansas City; she found her happiness eventually. She made the effort to live a healthy and happy life, something that many woman do not seem to be capable of. She doesn't need this guy. This song is easily my favorite song of all time. The lyrics are so well written as to relate to many situations. This song has touched upon many aspects/situations in my life over the past year. I recently fell in love, being the most recent. I was Kansas City for her, not to seem vain, I honestly was. The man she had before would beat and verbally abuse her. She left me to go back to him. "Never let a women tell you she loves you...."

    marsvolta001on July 17, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I’ll tell you one thing that you should never do - never let a woman tell you she loves you. She’ll call you “baby,” she’ll look in your eye, then she’ll get on that airplane and wave “bye bye bye bye bye bye, baby.” No shit. I'll never make that mistake again.

    Milkman82on December 17, 2004   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I saw them perform this song live, it was incredible.

    ghostcoon January 30, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    haha..i love it...love scorned dudes...this song is so nuts...who'd move to Kansas City, anyway?

    IAmAClicheon December 10, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    "Walking down Ellum/turning down main/trying to find someone to sell her cocaine" is an old Rev. Gary Dayis lyrics from "Cocaine". Kansas City is considered the birthplace of much of the electric blues movement -- these two are not coincidences. I think the girl wants to immerse herself in history/heritage that isn't her -- a romanticized past.

    sternjon April 07, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    whats the point in dissing on KC? the song is beautiful, lets leave it to that.

    THEJENNYDAREon December 18, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    As an aussie, I have no opinion or knowledge about KC, but I think this is a fantastic song...

    shockdelicaon April 23, 2009   Link

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