Lyrics to
Single Handed Sailor

This version of Single Handed Sailor was released by Dire Straits in 1979.

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Two in the morning, dry-dock town
The rivers rolls away in the night
Little gypsy moth she’s all tied down
She quiver in the wind and the light

Yeah and a sailing ship just held down in chains
From the lazy days of sail
She’s just lying there in silent pain
He lean on the turist rail

A mother and her baby and the college of war
In the concrete graves
You never wanna fight against the river law
Nobody rules the waves
Yeah and on a night when the lazy wind is a-wailing
Around the Cutty Sark
Single handed sailor goes sailing
Sailing away in the dark

He’s upon the bridge on the self same night
The mariner of dry dock land
Two in the morning, but there is one green light
And a man on the barge of sand
She’s gonna slip away below him
Away from the things he’s done
But he just shouts “Hey man, what do you call this thing?”
He could have said “Pride of London”
On a night when the lazy wind is a-wailing
Around the Cutty Sark
Yeah the single handed sailor goes sailing
Sailing away in the dark

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Dire Straits has released many songs over the years besides Single Handed Sailor. Dire Straits released songs from 1978 to 1991 spanning across albums like Dire Straits, Communique, Making Movies, Love Over Gold, ExtendedancEPlay, Brothers In Arms, and On Every Street. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Dire Straits.

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

About Lyrics and Single Handed Sailor by Dire Straits

The lyrics to Single Handed Sailor are the words, verses and chorus for the song released by Dire Straits in 1979. Elements of the lyrics to Single Handed Sailor are both direct in meaning and also metaphorical with the real meanings of the song only known by Dire Straits and any collaborating writers working on the lyrics for Single Handed Sailor back when it was created.

Some people have an interest in the etymology behind words and phrases. You can take apart the lyrics to Single Handed Sailor by Dire Straits in a number of ways. 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 Single Handed Sailor" means the words set to the music of Single Handed Sailor, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Dire Straits. 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 Single Handed Sailor and the lyrics to Single Handed Sailor are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Dire Straits who came here looking just for the lyrics to Single Handed Sailor, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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