What do you think Ride Captain Ride means?

Blues Image: Ride Captain Ride Meaning

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Album cover for Ride Captain Ride album cover

Ride Captain Ride Lyrics

Seventy-three men sailed up from the San Francisco Bay
Rolled off of their ship, and here's what they had to say
"We're callin' everyone to ride along to another shore
We can laugh our lives away and be free once more"

But no one heard them...

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  1. anonymous
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     Oct 8th 2012 !⃝

    I believe the writer wrote the song spur of the moment.
    The key is he meditated. Then he tapped into something and just wrote it and it 'flowed'. What he tapped into was the Pueblo, the mutiny, the counterculture, maybe even someones future burritos (lol), all those things, expressed the Spirit of the Times. I remember the Spirit of the Times when I hear the song and ALWAYS remember where I was and what I was doing the first time I heard it! Back in The Day!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  2. anonymous
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     Jul 23rd 2012 !⃝

    USS Pueblo. Timing is everything. 1968 and everyone was worried about the hostages. It was the top national story for months. Everyone knew it was a spy ship. The contention was whether or not it was in international waters.

  3. anonymous
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     May 10th 2012 !⃝

    It's pretty clear by now that the composer was vamping on the spur of the moment. What he came up with is cryptic enough to inspire speculation, but has clearly been debunked. It IS NOT about the Pueblo, nor Drake, nor specifically about drugs, or gay cruise ships nor anything more than just a call to adventure and to sail away to a more meaningful, loving, supportive culture than the one they are leaving. This was a common theme at the time, as the youth culture was convinced that they could come up with a better way to live than the life of their parents, which they were rejecting. Those who INSIST that it is otherwise are injecting their own beliefs onto a song and lyric that was written on the spur of the moment for valuable and dwindling studio time for a struggling group.

  4. anonymous
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     May 7th 2012 !⃝

    While I grew up hearing this song, I never really listened to the lyrics. I just watched the movie "Diggers" (2006) and they played it during the closing credits. It got me to wondering what the song was about. On my own interpretation, I went with 60s counterculture, as it seemed to me to be speaking of not only The Merry Pranksters but the Grateful Dead, led by Jerry Garcia, AKA "Captain Trips".

  5. oracle
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     Mar 31st 2012 !⃝

    ok I'm kind of surprised nobody got the meaning of this song so far...on a level of diffficulty I'd put this song as one of the easiest to interpret as I could think of.

    In a way I'm somewhat reticent to reveal the meaning of this song...sigh...
    hopefully some of you will recall the parable of the sower and be like the
    fertile ground which took the message and understood it.

    So here is the meaning:

    Jesus sent out 72 men....check your bible-
    you'll find it...

    the 73 men represent Jesus + the 72 men.
    Jesus is the captain.

    The entire song makes perfect sense in a metaphorical way if you first realize that the 73 men represent Jesus and the 72 men he sent out.

  6. anonymous
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     Oct 30th 2011 !⃝

    Don't kid yourself some smart guy knew how to read the fads and make a buck

  7. anonymous
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     Oct 14th 2011 !⃝

    San Francisco being the closest point in N. AMERICA I always think of the early sailors to Hawai'i who could go to Hawai'i where there was little to no laws forbidding 'love' and all of the other demands and restrictions we're forced to abide by from the State & Church. Aloha

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  8. anonymous
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     Sep 9th 2011 !⃝

    its about the USS Pueblo

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. anonymous
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     Sep 5th 2011 !⃝

    I'm not that interested in what the author was thinking when he wrote the song.

    But what I like about the song is that it's a great metaphor for our own life. Each of us is the captain of our own ship, and we can be amazed at the friends we'll meet on our trip (of life), the worlds that we might discover, etc. as long as we're not too busy focusing on unimportant details (like the raindrops falling).

    Or maybe the song is the mystery ship that takes us away from our everyday cares?

  10. anonymous
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     Aug 29th 2011 !⃝

    I love the song, no matter what the intrepretation. Ride Captain Ride captured my imagination the first time I heard it. In the end, who really cares what was behind the inspiration, but during that time and place the man had the desire to share his imagination with us.

  11. anonymous
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     May 8th 2011 !⃝

    I heard it was a reference to L. Roon Hubbard's ship. heard it from a 30+ year scientologist. Lots great stories here though. and trust me, i believe EVERYTHING i hear and read..... hehe

  12. K?vin B??rd?n
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     Mar 29th 2011 !⃝

    One person nailed this song...that would be milkiewaysmiami...

    This song IS about the USS Pueblo..although there are some factual inconsistencies, ie, 73 men, it was to make the song flow better.. there were actually 83, but they needed that extra syllable..

    The Pueblo did leave San Francisco bay..it certainly was a "mystery ship", as it was an intelligence gatherer, manned by Navy cryptologists..

    "and be free once more.." implies their mission to help make the world free from cold war enemies, to include the North Koreans..

    "No one heard them calling..." references the fact that the Pueblo send out emergency condition reports, but they were not received in time by an aircraft carrier that was operating a few hundred miles away..

    "to a world that others might have missed.." - that's what cryptologists do..they obtain information that others will not..

    and they certainly sailed off to "history", didn't they?

    How do I know all this? I'm a retired cryptologist..

    Rock on, Blues Image..

  13. anonymous
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     Feb 11th 2011 !⃝

    Right. So no musician in a band from the '60s and '70s knows anything about history? And every song from the '60s is about or inspired by or written while the writer was on drugs?

    Sounds like a whole lot of fear of reality from mental conservatives to me.

  14. anonymous
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     Feb 4th 2011 !⃝

    For my two cents worth I can believe drugs played a part in the song but to me the song has been inspiration to take chances in life do not be afraid of the unkown.Do not fear traveling a path or believing what others do not. I have told my children this is one of two songs that can be played at my funeral as I also see the song speaking to moving from this world to the next. By the way the other song is Blood Sweat and Tears' song "When I Die" from the same time period.

  15. anonymous
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     Dec 14th 2010 !⃝

    you know i don't really care where the artist got their inspiration from, and further more i hate it when people insist that a song is about drugs. Csn&y's Cathedral was inspired when one of them with a head full of acid walked into a church, but the lyrics "too many people have died in the name of christ for anyone to heed the call" is not about acid. Ride captain Ride is a song about 73 men who despite better judgement road off into a storm in order to discover a new land. the song is about risk, bravery, loyalty, friendship, and adventure.

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