"Sail Away" is a song by Randy Newman

Randy Newman

Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....

, the title track of his 1972 album

Sail Away (Randy Newman album)

-Personnel:* Randy Newman - arranger, composer, piano, vocals* Ry Cooder - guitars on "Last Night I Had a Dream" & "You Can Leave Your Hat On"* Russ Titelman - guitars* Jim Keltner - drums* Gene Parsons - drums* Earl Palmer - drums* Chris Ethridge - bass...

.

Lyrics and interpretation

"Sail Away" is representative of Newman's trademark unconventional and clever approach to songwriting: it takes the form of a "come on" or a "pitch" from an American slave trader

Atlantic slave trade

The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...

 to potential slaves

Slavery in Colonial America

The origins of slavery in the colonial United States are complex and there are several theories that have been proposed to explain the trade.In 1607, English settlers established Jamestown as the first permanent English colony in the New World. Tobacco became the chief crop of the colony, due to...

. The slaver attempts to convince his listeners to climb aboard his ship and "sail away" with him to America (specifically Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

), which he portrays as a land of happiness and plenty.

The lyrics contain several subtle references to the extreme ideological dichotomy

Dichotomy

A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts, meaning it is a procedure in which a whole is divided into two parts...

 going on in America at the time of the slave trade. For example, the slaver sings "In America, every man is free," emphasizing the American ideal of liberty. However, after a caesura

Caesura

thumb|100px|An example of a caesura in modern western music notation.In meter, a caesura is a complete pause in a line of poetry or in a musical composition. The plural form of caesura is caesuras or caesurae...

 he quickly concludes that sentence with "to take care of his home and his family," implying that every man in fact isn't "free" in every sense of the word.

Music

The song is written in the key of F major

F major

F major is a musical major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat . It is by far the oldest key signature with an accidental, predating the others by hundreds of years...

, and performed in that key on the album. The original album recording features an ostinato

Ostinato

In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...

 piano part, played by Newman (who also sings the lyrics), accompanied by a full orchestra (strings, winds and brass) for harmonic and melodic fills. It features a set of relatively simple (for Newman) chord changes in the blues-country-rock-gospel progression that Newman is so well known for.

Significance

"Sail Away" has been widely praised by critics and Newman fans as one of his finest works. It is often cited among the best tracks on one of his best albums. Like many Newman songs, the relative simplicity and "hominess" of the music contrast powerfully with the emotional fortitude of the lyrics.

"Sail Away" has been covered by many artists in live performances, notably, Ray Charles

Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

, Sonny Terry

Sonny Terry

Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry was a blind American Piedmont blues musician. He was widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts.-Career:Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia...

 and Brownie McGhee

Brownie McGhee

Walter Brown McGhee was a Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.-Life and career:...

, Etta James

Etta James

Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...

, Harry Nilsson

Harry Nilsson

Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...

, Frankie Miller

Frankie Miller

Frankie Miller is a Scottish rock singer-songwriter, who had his biggest success in the 1970s. Miller was raised at Colvend Street, Glasgow with his parents, Cathy and Frank, and elder sisters Letty and Anne. Miller attended Sacred Heart Primary school. He was an altar boy in Sacred Heart Chapel...

, Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....

, and Dave Matthews

Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is a U.S. rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer/backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley was...

.

Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...

 covered the song for her album "Don't Cry Now

Don't Cry Now

Don't Cry Now is Linda Ronstadt's fourth solo LP and the first of her studio releases for Asylum Records, following six albums recorded for and released on Capitol Records...

" (1973).

Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...

 covered the song on his last album before he died in 1972- Motown labels "Bobby Darin"

It is listed at #264 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs.