Lost Sailor

Compass card is spinning
Helm is swingin' to and fro
Ooh where's the dog star
Ooh where's the moon
You're lost sailor
You've been too long at sea

Some days the gales are howling
Some days the sea is still as glass
Ooh reef the mainsail
Ooh lash the mast
You're lost sailor
You've been too long at sea

Now the shore-lights beckon
Yeah there's a price for being free

Yeah the sea birds cry
There's a ghost wind blowin'
It's calling you to that misty swirling sea
Till the chains of your dreams are broken
No place in this world you can be

You're lost sailor
You've been way too long at sea
Now the shore-lights beckon
Yeah there's a price for being free

Drifting yeah drifting
Yeah drifting and dreaming

'Cause there's a place you've never been
Maybe a place you've never seen
You can hear her calling on the wind
Go on and drift your life away
Yeah just drifting and dreaming
Maybe drift your life away
Drifting and dreaming
Yes I'm going on a dream
Maybe going on a dream
Maybe going on a dream
Maybe going on a dream

1. Bob often sang "been way too long" instead of "been too long."

2. Bob often sang "Hear the seabirds" instead of "Yeah the seabirds."

3. The ending is largely improvised. Here are a few other examples:

4/23/84:
Every day you got to pay
Some more time you got to pay
Two kinds of freedom
Freedom from and freedom to be
One you may know where you're going
Or maybe you're just drifting to the sea
Drifting and dreaming
Is this a place you've never seen
Maybe a voice you've never heard or a face you've never seen
But you can hear them calling on the way to hell
Drifting and dreaming

11/1/85:
Got to pay for being free
Just loose and free and drifting
Drifting and dreaming
Maybe going on a dream
Maybe going on a feeling
You gonna drift your life away
It's as though anyone
Wouldn't thank you for drifting
Yeah drifting and dreaming
Drifting and dreaming
Maybe going on a dream
Maybe going on a feeling
'Cause there's a place you've never been
Maybe a place you've never seen
You can hear them calling, oh yeah
Drifting and dreaming

3/24/86:
Let me get into a short discourse about the nature of freedom
There are two kinds of freedom
Freedom from and freedom to be
The first kind of freedom is where you want to go now
What do you want to do now, freedom to be
Then there's the other kind of freedom
And that's the freedom from man
You could be a poet
You may be just drifting
Drifting and dreaming anyway