Pop Song 285 of 500 'Sail Away' Randy Newman 1972

Pop Song 285 of 500 'Sail Away' Randy Newman 1972

For @pattiannepascual for introducing this wonderful classic song to me and always giving me encouragement!

"Sail Away" is a song by Randy Newman, the title track of his 1972 album. In a 1972 review in Rolling Stone, Stephen Holden describes "Sail Away" as presenting "the American dream of a promised land as it might have been presented to black Africa in slave running days.

Newman talked about this song in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone: "There was a producer, the husband of Leslie Caron. He wanted to make a movie where he would give ten minutes to these artists - people like Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, me – to do anything we wanted. It never got made. But I had this idea of a slave ship and a sea shanty - this guy standing in a clearing, singing to a crowd of natives. These people in my songs don't know they're bad. They think they're fine. I didn't just want to say, 'Slavery is awful.' It's too easy. I wasn't doing Roots."

"Sail Away" has been covered by many artists in live performances, notably, Ray Charles, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Etta James, Frankie Miller, Roseanna Vitro, Bobby Doyle, Linda Ronstadt, Ann Wilson, Dave Van Ronk, Harry Nilsson, and Dave Matthews. On her first solo album, Gladys Knight covered it as part of a medley with Allen Toussaint's song "Freedom for the Stallion", which shares themes of the slave trade.

In America you get food to eat
Won't have to run through the jungle
And scuff up your feet
You just sing about Jesus and drink wine all day
It's great to be an American
Ain't no lion or tiger, ain't no mamba snake
Just the sweet watermelon and the buckwheat cake
Ev'rybody is as happy as a man can be
Climb aboard, little wog, sail away with me
Sail away, sail away
We will cross the mighty ocean into Charleston Bay
Sail away, sail away
We will cross the mighty ocean into Charleston Bay
In America every man is free
To take care of his home and his family
You'll be as happy as a monkey in a monkey tree
You're all gonna be an American
Sail away, sail away
We will cross the mighty ocean into Charleston Bay
Sail away, sail away
We will cross the mighty ocean into Charleston Bay