Lyrics to
Flying Dutchman

This version of Flying Dutchman was released by Jethro Tull in 1979.

Our About Jethro Tull page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Flying Dutchman from 1979 as well as all of the other lyrics from Jethro Tull that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Jethro Tull or about the 1970s in general.

Old lady with a barrow; life near ending
Standing by the harbour wall; warm wishes sending
children on the cold sea swell —
not fishers of men —
gone to chase away the last herring:
come empty home again.
So come all you lovers of the good life
on your supermarket run —
Set a sail of your own devising
and be there when the Dutchman comes.
Wee girl in a straw hat: from far east warring
Sad cargo of an old ship: young bodies whoring
Slow ocean hobo — ports closed to her crew
No hope of immigration — keep on passing through.
So come all you lovers of the good life
your children playing in the sun —
set a sympathetic flag a-flying
and be there when the Dutchman comes.

Death grinning like a scarecrow — Flying Dutchman
Seagull pilots flown from nowhere — try and touch one
as she slips in on the full tide
and the harbour-master yells
All hands vanished with the captain —
no one left, the tale to tell.

So come all you lovers of the good life
Look around you, can you see?
Staring ghostly in the mirror —
it’s the Dutchman you will be
..floating slowly out to sea
in a misty misery.

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Jethro Tull has released many songs over the years besides Flying Dutchman. Jethro Tull released songs from 1968 to 2003 spanning across albums like This Was, Stand Up, Benefit, Aqualung, Living In The Past, Thick As A Brick, A Passion Play, Warchild, Minstrel In The Gallery, Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die!, Songs From The Wood, Heavy Horses, Stormwatch, A, The Broadsword And The Beast, Under Wraps, Crest Of A Knave, Rock Island, Catfish Rising, Nightcap, Roots To Branches, J-Tull Dot Com, and The Jethro Tull Christmas Album. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Jethro Tull.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1979 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Flying Dutchman by Jethro Tull

The lyrics for Flying Dutchman are defined as the words making up the song released by Jethro Tull in 1979. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Flying Dutchman have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Jethro Tull and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Flying Dutchman by Jethro Tull if you think through it. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Flying Dutchman" means the words set to the music of Flying Dutchman, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Jethro Tull. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Flying Dutchman and the lyrics to Flying Dutchman are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Jethro Tull who came here looking just for the lyrics to Flying Dutchman, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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