Lyrics to
Red Sails

This version of Red Sails was released by David Bowie in 1979.

Our About David Bowie page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Red Sails from 1979 as well as all of the other lyrics from David Bowie that we have in our lyrics database.

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

Feel a bit roughed up,
feel a bit frightened
Nearly pin it down some time
Red sail action
wake up in the wrong town
Boy, I really get around

Thunder ocean
Thunder ocean
Red sails take me,
make me sail along

Red sails, and a mast so tall
Red sails
Red sails

Do you remember we another person
Green and black and red and so scared
Graffiti on the wall keep us all in tune
Bringing us all back home

Red sails
Thunder ocean
Red sails
Sailor can’t dance like you

Red sail
Red sail action
Red sail
Some reaction

Action boy seen living under neon
Struggle with a foreign tongue
Red sails make him strong
Action make him sail along
Life stands still and stares

The hinterland, the hinterland
We’re gonna sail to the hinterland
And it’s far far, far far far, far far far away
Its a far far, far far far, fa da, da da da
1-2-3-4
Ooooooo

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David Bowie has released many songs over the years besides Red Sails. David Bowie released songs from 1967 to 2003 spanning across albums like David Bowie, Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, Aladdin Sane, Pin Ups, Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, Station To Station, Heroes, Low, Lodger, Scary Monsters, Hot Space, Let's Dance, Tonight, Never Let Me Down, Black Tie White Noise, Outside, Earthling, Hours..., Heathen, and Reality. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by David Bowie.

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

About Lyrics and Red Sails by David Bowie

When you decide to study the lyrics to Red Sails, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1979 song by David Bowie. Some of the lyrics to Red Sails have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only David Bowie and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Red Sails if you take apart the structure of the words. 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 Red Sails" means the words set to the music of Red Sails, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by David Bowie. 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 Red Sails and the lyrics to Red Sails are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of David Bowie who came here looking just for the lyrics to Red Sails, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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