Here’s another good one for my Songs of the Sea series: Lost Sailor by the Grateful Dead. I’ve never been what you would call a “Deadhead“, tho I do enjoy their music. I guess I was just a little bit too young to really get into all the ‘hippy’ stuff going on back then that the Dead was associated with.
I don’t figure you have to be stoned to enjoy their music, but maybe it helps?
LOST SAILOR
Compass card is spinning
Helm is swingin’ to and fro
Ooh where’s the dog star
Ooh where’s the moon
You’re lost sailor
You’ve been too long at sea (note 1)
Some days the gales are howling
Some days the sea is still as glass
Ooh reef the mainsail
Ooh lash the mast
You’re lost sailor
You’ve been too long at sea
Now the shore-lights beckon
Yeah there’s a price for being free
Yeah the sea birds cry (note 2)
There’s a ghost wind blowin’
It’s calling you to that misty swirling sea
Till the chains of your dreams are broken
No place in this world you can be
You’re lost sailor
You’ve been way too long at sea
Now the shore-lights beckon
Yeah there’s a price for being free
Drifting yeah drifting
Yeah drifting and dreaming
‘Cause there’s a place you’ve never been (note 3)
Maybe a place you’ve never seen
You can hear her calling on the wind
Go on and drift your life away
Yeah just drifting and dreaming
Maybe drift your life away
Drifting and dreaming
Yes I’m going on a dream
Maybe going on a dream
Maybe going on a dream
Maybe going on a dream