The opening riff of this song was used by the beyond-geniuses who made the film BACKWOODS as the theme song for a guy on a bicycle whose only job is to annoy the viewer so much that when he is inevitably decapitated by Luther, the rectal-born cross-dresser, the audience can only feel a sense of relief.
Knees never played this song with any of his bands and it's too bad. I bet they would have done it well. It was recorded twice and both versions are essentially the same arrangement. Did anything improve from 1993 to 2015?
2015 Version
1993 Version
Written: Melendres Street, Las Cruces NM, 1977
This is Knees’ only
foray into post-apocalyptic dystopian songwriting. It began as a catchy phrase,
“from the Colorado Islands to the shores of Tennessee” and evolved into a tale
about fascism (the teachers), sacrifice and sea-faring adventure.
I’ve been a sailor for
the past seven years
Sailing on the ocean of
our country
I’ve seen the teachers,
the preachers of fear
Who kept me from the
woman who loved me
In the third year of
the flood
We met at Mt Rainier
Where we helped build
The village of the
mountain
We lived each others
lives
Through the hunger and
the tears
An drank the love that
flowed like a fountain.
Now I’m known as the
sailor of the century
The man who cheats the
forces from above
From the Colorado
Islands
To the shores of
Tennessee
I’ll sail the American
Ocean till I find my love
Then the teachers
walked among us
And told us of the sea
That lay to the east of
the desert
They told us there were
places
Where people still were
free
Where the teachers had
control of the weather
She told me there would
never
Be another in her life
But she had to see what
happened to the east
Before she left we
married
In the night of the
knife
When I became a killer
of the beast.
Now I’m known as the
sailor of the century
The man who cheats the
forces from above
From the Colorado
Islands
To the shores of
Tennessee
I’ll sail the American
Ocean till I find my love
I’ve been everywhere
that there’s left to be
And my lady may not
want me when I find her
But my life has not
been empty
As I sailed across the
sea
I’m not just the man
she left behind her.
Etruscan
