Shadow Captain

Album: CSN (1977)
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  • Oh, captain, what are we hiding from?
    You've been hiding from the start.
    Did some lover steal your heart,
    Or did the full moon make you mad?

    Oh, captain, why these speechless seas
    That never seem to land?
    Oh I need to understand.
    Could a little light be that bad?

    I can see your hands are roughened
    By the wheel and the rope.
    I'd like to look to you for hope,
    I think it's hiding there.
    This boat is blacked out like a city
    Awaiting bombers in the night.
    Oh you hold your helm so tight,
    And yet the sky seems so fair.

    Who guides this ship
    Dreaming through the seas
    Turning and searching,
    Whichever way you please?
    Speak to me, I need to see your face,
    Shadowy captain, in a darkened space.

    If I were to spy a city
    Floating just above the sea,
    Could we stop
    And look for me
    Among those playing on the pier?

    Or would you turn away knowing,
    It was still a ways away,
    And if I was there today
    you could not see me all that clear.

    Shadowy captain of a charcoal ship,
    Trying to give the light the slip Writer/s: CRAIG DOERGE, DAVID CROSBY
    Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 1

  • Rick Dau from Omaha, NebraskaI remember Crosby talking about this song when CSN was interviewed on Rockline in 1983. He said it a was spontaneous burst of creativity: "All the words just came out in one big splurge."
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