This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
If you smile at me you know I will understand
'Cause that is something everybody everywhere does
In the same language
I can see by your coat my friend that you're from the other side
There's just one thing I got to know
Can you tell me please who won
You must try some of my purple berries
I been eating them for six or seven weeks now
Haven't got sick once
Probably keep us both alive, yeah
Wooden ships on the water very free and easy
Easy you know the way it's supposed to be
Silver people on the shoreline leave us be
Very free and easy
Sail away where the morning sun goes high
Sail away where the wind blows sweet and young birds fly
Take a sister by her hand
Lead her far from this barren land
Horror grips us as we watch you die
All we can do is echo your anguished cry
Stare as all you human feelings die
We are leaving
You don't need us
Oh
Go and take a sister by her hand
Lead her far from this foreign land
Somewhere where we might laugh again
We are leaving
You don't need us (need us, no)
You don't need us
Sailing ships on the water very free and easy
Easy you know the way it's supposed to be
Silver people on the shoreline leave us be
Very free
And gone
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh) no, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh)
Ride the music, ride the music, ride the music
Go ride the music (oh ride), oh ride the music (oh ride), oh, ride the music, c'mon
'Cause that is something everybody everywhere does
In the same language
I can see by your coat my friend that you're from the other side
There's just one thing I got to know
Can you tell me please who won
You must try some of my purple berries
I been eating them for six or seven weeks now
Haven't got sick once
Probably keep us both alive, yeah
Wooden ships on the water very free and easy
Easy you know the way it's supposed to be
Silver people on the shoreline leave us be
Very free and easy
Sail away where the morning sun goes high
Sail away where the wind blows sweet and young birds fly
Take a sister by her hand
Lead her far from this barren land
Horror grips us as we watch you die
All we can do is echo your anguished cry
Stare as all you human feelings die
We are leaving
You don't need us
Oh
Go and take a sister by her hand
Lead her far from this foreign land
Somewhere where we might laugh again
We are leaving
You don't need us (need us, no)
You don't need us
Sailing ships on the water very free and easy
Easy you know the way it's supposed to be
Silver people on the shoreline leave us be
Very free
And gone
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh) no, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh)
Ride the music, ride the music, ride the music
Go ride the music (oh ride), oh ride the music (oh ride), oh, ride the music, c'mon
Lyrics submitted by FearAndLoathing
Wooden Ships Lyrics as written by Stephen Stills David Crosby
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Interesting observations dcba. The JA version does indeed start off more subtly then build to a crescendo with a scream of desperation, due to Nicky Hopkins piano on the intro to Jorma's searing guitar work.
It's also interesting to note the distinct parts that each composer, being Kantner, Crosby and Stills, brought to the song.
Here's Kantner's: Sail away where the mornin' sun goes high Sail away where the wind blows sweet and young birds fly Take a sister by her hand Lead her far from this barren land
And here's Stills: Horror grips us as we watch you die All we can do is echo your anguished cry Stare as all your human feelings die We are leaving You don't need us
I believe Crosby contributed the chorus; "Wooden ships on the water...etc."
The end result is a masterpiece work by three very talented musicians.