Single-Handed Sailor

Album: Communiqué (1979)
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  • Two in the morning, dry-dock town
    The river rolls in the night
    Little gypsy moth, she's all tied down
    She quivers in the wind and the light

    Yeah, and a sailing ship is just held down in chains
    From the lazy days of sail
    She's just a-lying there in silent pain
    He lean on the tourist rail

    A mother and her baby and the college of war
    In the concrete graves
    You never want to fight against the river law
    Nobody rules the waves
    Yeah, and on a night when the lazy wind is a-wailing
    Around the Cutty Sark
    The single-handed sailor goes sailing
    Sailing away in the dark

    He's upon the bridge on the self same night
    The mariner of dry-dock land
    Two in the morning, but there's one green light
    And a man on a barge of sand

    She's gonna slip away below him
    Away from the things he's done
    But he just shouts "Hey man, what you call this thing?"
    He could have said "Pride of London"
    On a night when the lazy wind is a-wailing
    Around the Cutty Sark
    Yeah, the single-handed sailor goes sailing
    Sailing away in the dark Writer/s: MARK KNOPFLER
    Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 4

  • Martin from CanadaThis song cut to my very core upon my first listen so many years ago and means so much to me. I recently visited the Cutty Sark in Greenwich and it was even more emotional than I expected. Thank you MK!
  • Phillip Anderson from Gosford, AustraliaWell seeing as Communiqué is almost a copy of the first album I wonder if there are some people who actually prefer it to the first album.
  • Bill from Virginia My favorite song Thank You Mark.
  • Gerard from Toulouse, FranceDefinitely one of 5 or 6 must-have songs for a perfect soundtrack to any VCR shots along London's Victoria Embankment!
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