Name: O, Captain
Duration: 5 min 3 s
Channel: Bryan Newbury
Description: "O, Captain" is a song by Great Big Yam. There is no option, other than failure.

O, Captain

Great Big Yam

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There is no option, other than failure.

music blues country roots songwriting mono rural analogue folkways

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Great Big Yam

Great Big Yam is all about the picnics and harvests. Rural music from rural people.

Great Big Yam is a collective and individual effort to preserve traditional American music and create songs within that tradition. From the traveling blues to the banjo breakdown to the jigs and reels native to Ireland to the African roots to folk protest songs.

Song Info

Genre

Acoustic • Acoustic Folk

Charts

Peak #1,147

Peak in subgenre #190

Author

Bryan Newbury

Rights

2006 Bryan Newbury

Uploaded

January 09, 2007

Track Files

MP3

MP3 4.6 MB • 128 kbps • 5:03

Story behind the song

A tune about industry, and the captains thereof. Influenced by Mr. Perkins.

Lyrics

I'm going to Basra
might go by plane
might go by boat
might buy some things
that will help me understand it better.

Flying to Samarkand,
flying over Tehran
following the pipeline, spices & sand
& underneath the sand
you'll understand.

I'm walking to La Paz
with my dirty feet
with my dirty suitcase
for the people I meet.
One's got a present, one's got a gun
Live in the present
you can walk in the sun
with the captains of industry.

I'm going to New Orleans
gonna' build me a dike
gonna' build me a casino
golf course and the like,
& you can ask them all where the money went.

You can ask the mayor
where the money went
You can ask the governor
how your money is spent
you can even ask the president,
he ain't gonna' tell you.

Bathe me in the water
dry me in the mud
baptise me in the water,
bathe me in the blood
of the mercenaries that went before me. 

Take me down to Caracas
with my dirty feet
with my dirty suitcase for the people I meet
With one a present, with one a gun
live in the present
you can walk in the sun
with the captains of industry.

And if our ship should run aground
and if we should not make that town
on the hill beyond the walls of the city proper
we'll take the ballast & the mooring lines
next to the palace we will find
& we can pull it until we bury it under.

I'm going to stand up
with my two feet
with a word of warning
for the people I meet
I'll tell them there is no option
other than failure.
There is no outcome
other than failure.

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