Ride Captain Ride - Blues Image (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

Ride Captain Ride (Blues Image, 1970). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2024-11-23. "Keeping the Oldies & Classics Alive"

"Ride Captain Ride,' written by Frank Konte and Mike PInera, was Blues Image's only top 40 hit climbing to the no. 4 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1970 (Whitburn, 2013). Valerie PInera, Mike's wife told songfacts that "'Ride Captain' is a story from [Mike Pinera's] imagination. I know when he was in the studio recording that album, they needed another song and he wrote it on the spot. He came up with 73 from the [Fender Rhodes 73] keyboard having 73 keys. A lot of people say it relates to a few different stories (songfest, 2024). For example "A plausible, but false interpretation of the song is that it is about Sir Francis Drake's voyage on the west coast of America. Drake did sail once with 73 sailors, and he sailed in the vicinity of San Francisco (songfacts, 2024). The band broke up shortly after the release of the single and Mike Pinera then jointed Iron Butterfly and then Alice Cooper, while Frank Konte joined Three Dog Night (C. Gaspich, msn, 2024; Wihitburn, 2013). On A plausible, but false interpretation of the song is that it is about Sir Francis Drake's voyage on the west coast of America. Drake did sail once with 73 sailors, and he sailed in the vicinity of San Francisco. Drake's ship was considered "mysterious" because of its opulence, funded by seizures from Spanish ships. On November 20th at 76 years old, Mike Pinera died of kidney failure, the last surviving member of Blues Image (C. Gaspich, msn, 2024; C. Piner, americansongwriter, Nov. 24, 2024).

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Lyrics:

Seventy-three men sailed up
From the San Francisco Bay,
Rolled off of their ship
And here's what they had to say.

"We're callin' everyone to ride along
To another shore,
We can laugh our lives away
and be free once more."

But no one heard them callin',
No one came at all,
'Cause they were too busy watchin'
Those old raindrops fall.

As a storm was blowin'
Out on the peaceful sea,
Seventy-three men sailed off
To history.

Ride, captain ride
Upon your mystery ship,
Be amazed at the friends
You have here on your trip.

Ride captain ride
Upon your mystery ship,
On your way to a world
That others might have missed.

(Instrumental)

Seventy-three men sailed up
From the San Francisco Bay,
Got off their ship
And here's what they had to say.

"We're callin' everyone to ride along
To another shore,
We can laugh our lives away
And be free once more."

Ride, captain ride
Upon your mystery ship,
Be amazed at the friends
You have here on your trip.

Ride, captain ride
Upon your mystery ship,
On your way to a world
That others might have missed.

Ride, captain ride
Upon your mystery ship,
Be amazed at the friends
You have here on your trip.