SONG: I Am Sailing

SONG: “I Am Sailing.”

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE:Based on “LightSail”, sail.planetary.org, retrieved 13 May 2015, as used in the post “A solar sail unfurling. Not sometime in the unspecified future – *next week*.”

ABSTRACT: Is this the song I wanted to write? I’m not sure. The lyrics were not the same as where I was aiming, but I stole a first line from a reflective moment, reminiscing about the hell of junior high school, in this podcast. Thank you, Mister Roderick, for a lyric.

The idea here was that chemical rockets (and things that are fueled in general) can only get you so far. But a solar sail, while it starts really slowly, will just keep going and going. There’s a Taoist lesson there, or a Sub-Genius one, about the virtues of slack.

And sails! In space! That is a beautiful thing, and now it is a real thing, and that is even more beautiful.

This was recorded kind of all in a hurry, mostly live, and sort of backwards. I knew I wanted a gamelan in there, because… I don’t know, something sail-y about that sound. So I made that and a drum part, and then recorded an organ solo because why not, and then wrote the lyrics on the guitar, and then had to cut everything up because I’d made the verses longer and the choruses shorter than I should have, and by then, it was already this afternoon and, man, I got stuff to *do*.

But it’s OK, I think. Someday, maybe, I’ll rig a hammock up in a CubeSat, get a good-sized mylar sheet and go for a sail out asteroid-belt way.

LYRICS:

I Am Sailing

V1
I got tired of dreaming different ways to stop time
Wanted the stars, wait for the stars to align
I couldn’t be perfect, so why keep trying?
You’ll never leave the world behind that way.

PRE-CH
Spread out my sheets to greet the day’s
Sweet silver light in bright array…
To slowly go, we’re underway
And I am sailing

Sailing.

V2
Everything that burns… will somehow leave traces
Every last little spark… will somehow fill up these spaces
Momentum never dies so we’re off to the races
We leave the world behind this way.

PRE-CH
Spread out my sheets to greet the day’s
Sweet silver light in bright array…
To slowly go, we’re underway
And I am sailing

Sailing.

SOLO

PRE-CH
Spread out my sheets to greet the day’s
Sweet silver light in bright array…
To slowly go, we’re underway
And I am sailing

Sailing.