Can't Find My Way Home by Blind Faith

Album: Blind Faith (1969)

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Blind Faith was a Supergroup made up of Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech. They released just one album, which topped both the UK and US charts around the same time the group was breaking up.
Winwood wrote this and sang lead. Many critics noted that Blind Faith sounded a lot more like Winwood's old band Traffic than Clapton's Cream, which is what Clapton was going for.
Clapton played acoustic guitar on this track, which is something he rarely did. In his previous group, Cream, he played long, intense solos, something he wanted to get away from with Blind Faith.
The album was released in the UK with a cover photo of an 11-year-old girl named Mariora Goschen. The cover photo because as famous as the album itself, since it showed Goschen naked and holding a model spaceship (a different cover with a band photo was used in the US and for stores that wanted an alternative in the UK).

Bob Seidemann came up with the concept and took the photo, which represents humankind's relationship with technology (this was when the mission to put a man on the moon was big news). The band wasn't yet named, and when Seidemann took the photo, he called it "Blind Faith." Clapton decided that should be the name of the band.
Clapton sometimes plays this at his concerts, with a member of his band singing. His bass player Nathan East would often sing it.
A common misconception is that Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood reunited at the Crossroads Guitar Festival, July 28, 2007, however, the first true live reunion occurred two months earlier at an event called Countryside Rocks at Highclere Castle, Hampshire, UK on May 19, 2007. Steve Winwood performed his set and Eric came on later as a guest. Together they played this song as well as "Watch Your Step," "Presence of the Lord," "Crossroads," "Little Queen Of Spades," "Had to Cry Today" and "Gimme Some Lovin'." >>
Suggestion credit:
William - Melbourne, Australia
The band House of Lords covered this on their 1990 album Sahara. Other artists to record it include Joe Cocker, Yvonne Elliman, Gilberto Gil and Widespread Panic. >>
Suggestion credit:
Amanda - Amawalk, NY

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Comments: 38

Kawa from Tokyo, JapanHi Music lovers,

I think that the idea of this song, Can't Find My Way Home, came form the song called, Feelin' Alright, written by Dave Mason when he was in the British rock band called, Traffic, in 1968. As you know, 'Fellin' Alright' is a very good song and Dave's main song. Also as you know, Steve Winwood was a leader in the band. Dave left the group after releasing this song as a single in 1968. At the same time, the group, Traffic was disbanded and Dave took a solo carrier but Steve formed Blind Faith with Eric, Ginger and Ric in 1969 and the band released their first and last album in the same year. I think that Steve was very surprised to know that Dave wrote a wonderful song like Feein' Alright so he also thought that he wanted to write a song like that. So he wrote Can't Find My Way Home and recorded it with the member of Blind Faith and released it in 1969. I'll tell you how he do it next time.

To be continued,
Anton from EarthFlowerchildrensoeak, do yourself a favor and look up the word 'titian'.
Richard from Here DudeWow, I can't believe what a moron Ghoststalker is.
Steven from NjA great song. Sparse lyrics yet very powerful. I'm wondering if this is really a conversation between two people. The plea to stop and the negative answer.
Ghoststalker from Ireland"The album cover was a photo of an 11-year-old girl. She was naked and holding a model spaceship, which caused a lot of controversy."

Yeah, that model spaceship was outrageously obscene. They should've replaced it with a banana rather than taking the whole cover down.
Ghoststalker from IrelandWow, some people are way off the mark regarding the meaning of this song.

It's pretty straight forward really. It's about taking drugs, and the effects it has on the person who's taking and everyone else around.

Really, it's that simple:

"Come down off your throne and leave your body alone"
Meaning: Get off "la-la land" and stop snuffling flour and poking your arms with needles and stuff.

"Somedoby must change"
Meaning: Er... hello? "Somebody" here gotta stop with that "needle and spoon" nonsense...

"You are the reason I've been waiting so long"
Meaning: I still love you and I've been patiently waiting for you to kick the habit.

"somebody holds the key"
Meaning: Er... hello again? "Somebody" here "holds the key" to stop it, and guess what? It's YOU!

"Well, I'm near the end and I just ain't got the time"
Meaning: I'm losing my patience, I can't waste my life waiting for you to drop the hookah...

"And I'm wasted and I can't find my way home"
Meaning: I'm tired of all that you've made me go through because of your addiction, I'm feeling lost...

...

IMO, the song itself has got a "alright" melody, fun to play on the guitar and all that, but the lyrics... well, better keep my opinion to myself.
Kim from Montgomery, TxSteve Winwood was raised by a religious family (one was a minister) and later wrote "Higher Love" about wanting a closer relationship with God (higher love). I believe he was lost for a while, caught up in fame and everything that goes with it, and expressed being lost in "Can't Find My Way Home". Glad his heart finally found the "key" and God's "higher love".
Kim from Montgomery, TxI hear him telling God he can't find his way home (heaven)
Come down off your throne (Jesus) Leave your body alone (crucifixion)
Somebody (singer) must change (his behavior and belief in God)
God is the answer and holds the key and singer has waited so long (too long) to abide by
Now he's trying to get there by getting wasted (or maybe feels like he might OD - "near the end") and hasn't given God his time? He hasn't done anything wrong to prevent him from getting in, but he is still a lost soul. Maybe it's a warning to the rest of us to get it straight with God before it's too late.
Jack from Brookline, MaWow! The more I hear this song the more I love it...it just gets right down inside you! Winwood's voice is genius! I absolutely LOVE Clapton's guitar playing in this song in particular. It might even be some of my favorite guitar Clapton's ever done...I feel as though this sound he captures here is so unique compared to most of the stuff he's done. Of course, he's done all kinds of guitar playing throughout his amazing career. This one though has an eerie, yet beautiful tone to it. Ginger Baker's timing couldn't be better on this either. Just perfect. This is a classic rock staple!
Marcia from Traverse City, MiCan't Find My Way Home also done really well by Ellen McIlwaine (youtube) and Tracy Nelson.
Judith from New York, NySomeone asked about the meaning of "Come down off your throne." I think he's saying the addict acts like a king who commands his subject (his body) to take in toxic substances, even if obeying those commands hurts the subject (the body).
Judith from New York, NyI was just at a live band karaoke performance. This song was the most powerful of all the performances and all the woman did was stand and sing it. I had heard it for years (since way back when - 1969) and never knew who did it until I had to look it up here based on that simple performance.
Joann from Salem, VaI was blessed enough to see Steve Winwood and Carlos Santana in concert this summer. I had my 23 year old son and 21 year old daughter with me. When Winwood started to play this song I was transported in time, back to the late 60's. I looked at my kids and thought "Wow...I was them and they are me". Lucky I am that they enjoy the same music. This song makes me miss so many of the lost souls I knew back then...wondering where they are and if they found peace.
John from Ashley, InIt was a period when every Pop artist from Cat Stevens to the Who came to the end of their tether, creatively, and had to change to fit the times. The Beatles were on their last album, Cream had proven too much for Clapton, and so there was this transition to a more folksy closer to Earth feel, all around, leading to bands like- Poco, the Eagles, Loggins and Messina. After the Beatles no longer existed, there had to be a replacement.
It was also part of the great era of travelling, (and running out of money). Personal computers were invented by people who learned how to cheat the phone company, calling home from Mozambique, Paris or Morocco.
Flowerchildrensoeak from New York City, NyPardon me, it appears most evident that required is a Blind Faith-BF, first album cover, reality-check, as availed tellingly below: for what it, itself, might prove worth to you the attentive reader.

PUT ON YOUR THINKING-CAP
Several glaring facts run contrary to the fiction authored on Wikipedia (a fount of/for such gibberish), and elsewhere online.

Empirically conveyed--contextually below--this missive should, as well intended, on some sincere level, serve to "unmask" the phony "back-stopping", re the true identity of the clearly under-age "titan-haired girl" who does, in fact, for ever more, ARTISTICALLY GRACE that of BF's, and thereby launches her own, monumental
career debut ... back in late 1969.

The current crop of, shall we say, CYA referenced, amounts----as might well be
expectable in today's litigious world, perhaps [for all this writer knows "that good faith in which the information was conveyed to me
while I myself was a model in NY, by certain of the parties indicated, could, in fact, have been errantly/derisively presented as fact; meant, though highly unlikely, to deceive me]----a re-write of the HISTORICAL RECORD {you, the reader, should be familiar with the pervasive "corporate" CYA acronym's meaning}: That is what all good entertainment lawyers and Ad agencies
render in their due courses, so as to protect their joint client | consultancy relationship and gravy-train(s)--it is that same CYA that you, too, frequently perform, so as to retain your "today's world" corp. gig, no?

Granted; then, you understand that this missive is posted with NO MALICIOUS INTENTION WHATSOEVR; but, in its bid to set-the-record straight for perpetuity. It deploys the rationale and supports its positions, with citations of relevant
tid-bits, conveyed herein.

Relatively speaking, with the scepter of averting any possible misleading linkage--
no matter the pure and clear artistic expression intended--sans imputing any sub-textual reading of it--to the BF cover, its creators and all others involved in its promotion/distribution and the like---sensitive to today's crazed and
wrapped "moralizing", that colors our "day and age of loony religious zealots" ... and, too, when the ilk of R. Polanski remains hunted down (and perhaps, in his case, rightfully so), can there remain any reason then that the historical
record, by said parties, would go targeted for "good old-fashioned orchestrated
scrubbing online: no kidding, right?

Hm.

Who in their right mind would or could blame anyone associated with BF and that of its otherwise innocuous, albeit otherwise splendid cover's artistic expression, would possible want "anything bad to come of it, or even talk of it"?

In such, as today's, anti-flesh aka a "morally" hostile environment--slotting such a possibly adverse "judgment call" in the current general mind-set ... for projection and assessment of possible infractions ... seems only prudent, no?

However, ancient Hypatia screams across the ages for us to "bear witness to the truth": so in that spirit, and if what is conveyed below is somehow, in-fact, proven inaccurate, then my hope remains in availing the truth of the matter: nothing more, nothing less.

So ... who really was BF's titan-hair young beauty, and what was she actually holding, and what
of its metaphorical and/or symbolic meaning(s)?

FACT CHECKS
I. CLAIM: "she's holding .... a model space ship" (?)
CONSIDER: "... Concorde completed its first supersonic flight on 1 October 1969 ... for the preceding year its advent filled the new and fired imaginations world-wide."

II. CONSIDER:
Additionally, pervasive, during the entire "hippie period", in "literature, lyrics and research", was the concept of FUTUROLOY: check the array of Books in Print, articles and news casts for the era. Quickly, the disingenuine back-peddling assertion (paraphrasing, from the comment posted above), "that one too young would look foolish", re BF's selection of the "right cover girl" for their debut ... album: a "real head turner", in 'eye-popping color", with a "jet-set hippie chic projecting at super-sonic speeds off of the page": ACHIEVED, no?

II. CATENATED ASSERTIONS?:
A certain titan-haired kid ie. girl, was aged
6 or 7-years old ... in 1969; later,
re-emerging in the early 1980's as one of
two Elite Model Management's (and the more
famous, if not exactly the more "even
featured") two top natural red-haired
female models ... in the world. Maria v H.,
the "frizzy/corkswrewed curly-haired" one,
of the pair, [the one with remarkably (then)
fashionable extra-thick "caterpillar
eyebrows": themselves a riotous natural
strawberry blonde" color rarely seen] would
go on to grace, and equally famous/artistic,
in its own right, ELLE cover, VOGUE(S) et al
fashion magazine covers, including several
spreads in the coveted

Sports Illustrated issues; mean-while, Nancy D., the slightly taller of the stunning pair of titans, carrying her classically even facial features-framed in razor-straight carrot-red hair pony-tail--would, too, attain a modicum of success of numerous top-designers and editors ... but would shorten her own career, by "dropping out to have a kid". Our two mentioned red-heads--who ruled that particular hairesque-niche of NY's '80s fashion scene ... only sharing a portion of its "high paying catalog contracts" realm, with FORD MODEL AGENCY'S own natural titan-haired gal, no other than Katherine R. ... shared professional bonds and personal friendship [with years later our Maria v H. jumping ship to FORD from ELITE.

NOTE: Even the brightest hued red-heads' hair does not ALWAYS photograph as such; a titan's hair displays its brightness/tonality, contingent upon numerous media factors

HOWEVER, only one of those three gals .... began her life and career astride Rock and Roll's high-speed highway: she alone ... might well prove to be our elusive and stunning--albeit very young--KELTIO titan-haired FUTUROLOGY HARBINGGER, no?

III. Ginger Baker's consanguinity ... to whom? Hm.

Finished.
Tony from Eugene, OrThis tune really takes me back in time. My friend Steve and I were teenagers teaching ourselves guitar by playing records over and over, and we really drilled on this one. Steve had a good falsetto and could cop the Winwood vocal fairly well. Dude was only 17 at the time, but he really seemed to feel the lyrics. Me, I just thought the guitar playing was way cool. Steve passed away a few years ago, and I can't hear this song without having a sharp pang of nostalgia. Definitely one of the best, ever.
Craig from San Diego, CaIt was said that Sharon Tate was playing this
when Charles Manson and his band of misfits
broke into her home in Bel Air.
Rabitt from Sugar Land, TxFrom the first time I heard the album, right after its release in '69, I've considered this song one of the Top 10 songs ever! To this day it gives me chills...and I find no hidden message in it. Just great R&R music! Winwood's smooth voice, Clapton's guitar and God love Ginger Baker and his drums! Baker always had a beat and style all his own. BTW, Rick Grech (Gretch???) shows up in Blind Faith from a group called 'Family' and then, as far as I know, is never heard from again. I guess so goes the lonely life of a bassist.
Craig from San Diego, CaThis song is the earmark of that special time
that was the late 60's.
Wes from South Pasadena, CaSteve Winwood brings spirituality into a "redemptive focus" (Sea of Joy, Can't Find My Way Back Home"). Dennis' comments above are correct, viewed through the prism Winwood intended- that conversations you have with "yourself" on matters spiritual are guided by the Holy Spirit that lies in each of us. We may not always be able to "find our way back home", but with blind faith (or more likely, the beginning of an awakening of faith), and His help, we are able.
Lisa from Downey, Cayeah, wasted in my back patio...only 32 and can't find my way back home to my man...he's sleeping inside...it's 2008 ... but there's gotta be more than this...
R.h. from Pauls Valley, OkHaven't you idiots ever been "near the end and just ain't got the time. And I'm wasted and I can't find my way home"? I experienced that feeling MANY times in the 70's. LOL You people read too much in songs.
Joseluis from Veracruz, MexicoAmo Mozart, Telemann, Bach, Miles, Parker, Dylan, Charles, King, Waters, Clapton y desde niño estoy escuchando rock'n'roll, blues y clásicos entre otros, pero éste rolón del Maestro Winwood se quedo sin madre. Pienso y siento es EXCELSA, DIOS debe haber estado junto a él cuando la escribió.

I THOROUGHLY ENJOYE AND LOVE MUSIC mainly rock, jazz, blues and clasics among other types of music and in particular I DO THINK AND FEEL THIS ONE PIECE IS SUBLIME, GOD must have inspired good ol' Steve
Dave from Nashville, TnThis song was also co-written with Charlie Wayne Morrill just ask ole Stevie Winwood yourself if you don't believe me although the politics in music business hasn't acknowledged him the bragging rights he deserves. go to ASCAP 's website he freakin wrote this song.
Dennis from St. Louis, MoTo answer the meaning of this song, I think only Steve could answer this honestly but I read an interview and Steve Winwood told the interviewer that the song was written for a dear friend and his struggles with drug and alcohol abuse.
He said he wrote it as if it were himself struggling and a inter discussion with himself. Pretty deep huh?

Come down off your thrown and leave your body alone
Somebody must change. (Struggle between physical addiction and spiritual awakening. )

You are the reason I've been waiting here so long. (Again, he has been waiting for himself to return from addiction. The addict is not who he is.)
Somebody holds the key. (he does)

I've been up and I just dont have the time and I'm wasted and I can't find my way home. (home is him, A lost aging man wasted on drugs trying to find himself......home)
Chords to this song as performed by Blind Faith
A,G,D,C and E
Bart from Westmont, NjIn my opinion its the 3rd best song of all time behind only "Yesterday" and "Imagine". Stevie Wynwood does an incredible job on vocals and Clapton is well, Clapton on guitar.In my opinion "Blind Faith" was the best ever "put together super group" even if there was only one album and I believe one tour. It's a shame they didn't stay together longer but I assume egos got in the way.
Gary from Seattle, WaEveryone assumed it was Ginger Baker's daughter, a fact which Baker somewhat let propogate. In reality Jerry is 100% correct. When I intervewed Ginger he seemed very much amused by this rumor.

Be safe.

Gary-Seattle
Jerry from Sacramento, CaThe girl was holding a Spaceship (not a hood ornament or model)
The space ship was made by Mick Milligan, a jeweler at the Royal College of Art and the girl was the little sister of the original girl selected.
http://www.angelfire.com/wi/blindfaith/vvcov69.html

Jerry, Sac Ca.
Riccardo from Udine, ItalyCould anyone help me to know the meaning of the words? is it a song about the death? about someone who's going to die? I'm not english and so I have some problems...
Thank You!!
Rory from New York, NyI disagree. "Sea of Joy" is a fantastic song, but I think this is the best Blind Faith song. Plus, the girl on the cover is NOT Ginger Baker's daughter, as is so often rumoured.
Trish from Old Forge, Pai think SEA OF JOY is the best song on that album.
Rick from Montreal, CanadaThe girl on the cover is the daughter of
drummer Ginger Baker.
Vincent from Newington, CtI saw Mark Knopfler play this along side Eric Clapton in Hartford ten years ago.. Knopfler was sitting in with Clapton's band and the two played with such passion and precision. Both played with paper thin acoustic guitars. Every so often,, one would look at the others fingers to make sure they were on the same sheet of music. Bassist, Nathan East sang the song while wearing a Huck Finn straw hat.
But what does me mean "Come down off your throne"? and leave your body alone? Self rightious behavior?

I saw Winwood sing this song seven months ago,, and It sounded like it did in the sixties. Incredible,, Winwood's voice and the careful tapestry of the lyrics have produced one of the finest songs ever recorded.
Johnny from Los Angeles, CaThis is such a good song. I'm about to go on a trip but I don't have the heart to turn it off, which I'll be yelled at for doing soon. More people should comment here!!!!!!!!!
Nathan from L-burg, KyGood Song beats the song Had To Cry Today
Evan from Fullerton, CaIt's on the "Deluxe Edition" of their album, and it kicks major ass.
Mark from Los Angeles, CaThere is a version out now with electric guitar. Sounds good, too.
John from Stockton, CaOn the album cover, the girl was holding a hood ornament from an old American made car i.e. Oldsmobile, not a modle airplane.