Round the Cape

The fifth track on the 2020 album Cures What Ails Ya, this is a Longest Johns original, written by Robbie Sattin. The song refers to those bold sailors who were mad enough or capable enough to have survived passage around Cape Horn, part of a treacherous archipelago at the southernmost part of Chile.

Factoids

The waters around Cape Horn are particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents and icebergs. On top of the natural hazards, the only facilities in the vicinity able to service or supply a ship, or provide medical care, were in the Falkland Islands. The businesses there were so notorious for price-gouging that damaged ships were sometimes abandoned at Port Stanley.

Silver in my ear refers to a tradition amongst sailors (though there is some debate about how factually accurate it is), that sailors who had rounded Cape Horn wore a silver (or sometimes gold) earring in the ear that had been facing the Cape when they passed it.

Lyrics

Well we're goin' round the cape, golden shores to find
900 miles of wind and waves smashing up the sides
We're goin' round the cape, there is no other way
For trade, and king, and countrymen, we'll brave the foam and spray

{Chorus}
So tell my love that I'll be back someday
It's rock and roll her, rock and roll her, rock and roll away
When I return, I swear I'm gonna stay
So rock and roll her, rock and roll her, rock and roll away

I left my home and land to sail a clipper ship
Into the parts of my old map that barely have been writ
I must be out of my mind to leave England in my wake
But I'll get that silver in my ear, we're goin' round the cape

{Chorus}

{Bridge}
It's a long way home but many miles to go
There's a gale that's trying to drag us all below
And I'm loath to dream of any better fate
But what awaits the brave around the cape

I heard the sailors say, "By God you must be mad
There's waves as tall as houses and the gales'll knock you flat
And when the storm has fled and the fog is thick as mud
It's pray for your deliverance, and pray you rightly should"

{Chorus x2}

Rock and roll her
Rock and roll her
Rock and roll away

Recordings

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Cures What Ails Ya version

Commodore 1864 version

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