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| The Beach Boys - Sail On Sailor |
The Beach Boys - Sail On Sailor Lyrics and Youtube Music VideosAlbum:
Holland Released:
1973 I sailed an ocean, unsettled ocean
Through restful waters and deep commotion
Often frightened, unenlightened
Sail on,
Sail On SailorI wrest the waters, fight Neptune's waters
Sail through the sorrows of life's marauders
Unrepenting, often empty
Sail on, sail on sailor
Caught like a sewer rat alone but I sail
Bought like a crust of bread, but oh do I wail
Seldom stumble, never crumble
Try to tumble, life's a rumble
Feel the stinging I've been given
Never ending, unrelenting
Heartbreak searing, always fearing
Never caring, persevering
Sail on, sail on, sailor
I work the seaways, the gale-swept seaways
Past shipwrecked daughters of wicked waters
Uninspired, drenched and tired
Wail on, wail on, sailor
Always needing, even bleeding
Never feeding all my feelings
Damn the thunder, must I blunder
There's no wonder all I'm under
Stop the crying and the lying
And the sighing and my dying
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Writer/s: RAY KENNEDY, TANDYN ALMER, BRIAN WILSON, VAN DYKE PARKS, JOHN RIELEY III
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by
LyricFindSail On Sailor This song was the centerpiece of a long and convoluted story regarding the recording of the Holland album. The Beach Boys relocated to the Netherlands in 1972 to record this album away from the pressures of Los Angeles. They spent exorbitant amounts of money building a studio on a farm in Baambrugge, Holland recording it. When the band turned the album over to Dave Bursyn at Warner Bros., he rejected it because there was no potential single. Bursyn called Brian Wilson friend and collaborator Van Dyke Parks , and asked if there was anything they had worked on - even a kernel of a song - that they might be able to transform into a hit. Wilson was still showing flickers of genius at this time, but had become very unpredictable and far less productive. Parks, who wrote lyrics for Wilson's songs during the Smile sessions, was one of the few people in close contact with Wilson at the time and had a cassette containing fragments of a song that he and Brian started, that being "Sail On Sailor." Parks was able to get Wilson to sit down at a piano and finish the song, a session that was recorded on cassette and reveals Wilson constantly veering off course while Parks exhorts him to "Write a f--king middle-eight" and at one point has to convince Wislon that he is not insane.
When the song was finally written, the other Beach Boys recorded it without Wilson and tacked it onto the album, replacing a Ricky Fataar/Blondie Chaplin/Mike Love song called "We Got Love." This features a soulful lead vocal from guitarist Blondie Chaplin. (thanks, Bill - Hendersonville, NC, for above 2) Dennis Wilson was the original lead singer of the song. On the day he was supposed to record his lead vocal, he had just purchased a new surfboard and couldn't wait to break it in. His impatience got the best of him, and he left the session with only a partially-recorded vocal and went surfing. Carl Wilson then asked Blondie Chaplin to sing lead. (thanks, Sean - Chicago, IL) This song was released as a single twice; it reached #79 in the US in 1973. Two years later, it was rereleased and reached #49. This was one of just two songs Brian Wilson wrote for the Holland album. The other was the closing track "Funky Pretty." Besides Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, there are three other guys credited for writing this song: Jack Rieley, Tandyn Almer and Ray Kennedy. Almer wrote The Association's "Along Comes Mary" and was friends with Wilson; Rieley was The Beach Boys manager and wrote lyrics for some of their songs; Ray Kennedy was a musician and songwriter that started working on the song with Wilson in 1970.