Music

Sailing To Philadelphia

Sailing To Philadelphia

Album Credits

Mark Knopfler: vocals and guitars
Richard Bennett: guitars and other stringed things in his flight case
Jim Cox: piano and Hammond organ
Guy Fletcher: keyboards and backing vocals
Glenn Worf: bass
Chad Cromwell: drums

Recorded and mixed by Chuck Ainlay, assisted by Mark Ralston, Jon Bailey, Graham Lewis & Aaron Swihart.
Additional engineering on 'Baloney Again' and 'El Macho' by Chubba Petocz.
Mastered by Denny Purcell at Georgetown Masters, Inc., assisted by Jonathan Russell.
Editing by Eric Conn.

Produced by Chuck Ainlay & Mark Knopfler.

All songs written by Mark Knopfler. Published by straitjacket Songs Ltd./Rondor Music (London) Ltd.

Sandy Choron: art direction
Harry Choron: design
Front cover photograph: ©2000 Jose Molina/Graphistock
Back cover photograph: ©2000 James Gritz/Photonica
Portrait photography: Andrew Williams
Additional photography: ©2000 Ben Mikaelsen

Aubrey Haynie appears courtesy of Sugar Hill Records
Mike Henderson appears courtesy of Dead Reckoning Records
Van Morrison appears courtesy of Exile Productions Ltd.
Chris Rodriguez appears courtesy of World Records
James Taylor appears courtesy of Columbia Records
Glenn Tilbrook appears courtesy of Quixotic Records
Gillian Welch appears courtesy of Almo Sounds Inc.

Released: Mercury/Warner Bros. (2000)

Sailing To Philadelphia

  • 1. What It Is
    The drinking dens are spilling out
    There’s staggering in the square
    There’s lads and lasses falling about
    And a crackling in the air

    Down around the dungeon doors
    The shelters and the queues
    Everybody’s looking for
    Somebody’s arms to fall into

    And it’s what it is
    It’s what it is now

    There’s frost on the graves and the monuments
    But the taverns are warm in town
    People curse the government
    And shovel hot food down

    The lights are out in city hall
    The castle and the keep
    The moon shines down upon it all
    The legless and asleep

    And it’s cold on the tollgate
    With the wagons creeping through
    Cold on the tollgate
    God knows what I could do with you

    And it’s what it is
    It’s what it is now

    The garrison sleeps in the citadel
    With the ghosts and the ancient stones
    High up on the parapet
    A Scottish piper stands alone

    And high on the wind
    The highland drums begin to roll
    And something from the past just comes
    And stares into my soul

    And it’s cold on the tollgate
    With the Caledonian Blues
    Cold on the tollgate
    God knows what I could do with you

    And it’s what it is
    It’s what it is now
    What it is
    It’s what it is now

    There’s a chink of light, there’s a burning wick
    There’s a lantern in the tower
    Wee Willie Winkie with a candlestick
    Still writing songs in the wee, wee hours

    On Charlotte Street I take
    A walking stick from my hotel
    The ghost of Dirty Dick
    Is still in search of Little Nell

    And it’s what it is
    It’s what it is now
    Oh it’s what it is
    What it is now

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Aubrey Haynie: violin
  • 2. Sailing to Philadelphia
    I am Jeremiah Dixon
    I am a Geordie Boy
    A glass of wine with you, sir
    And the ladies I’ll enjoy

    All Durham and Northumberland
    Is measured up by my own hand
    It was my fate from birth
    To make my mark upon the earth…

    He calls me Charlie Mason
    A stargazer am I
    It seems that I was born
    To chart the evening sky

    They’d cut me out for baking bread
    But I had other dreams instead
    This baker’s boy from the west country
    Would join the Royal Society…

    We are sailing to Philadelphia
    A world away from the coaly Tyne
    Sailing to Philadelphia
    To draw the line
    The Mason-Dixon line

    Now you’re a good surveyor, Dixon
    But I swear you’ll make me mad
    The West will kill us both
    You gullible Geordie lad

    You talk of liberty
    How can America be free
    A Geordie and a baker’s boy
    In the forest of the Iroquois…

    Now hold your head up, Mason
    See America lies there
    The morning tide has raised
    The capes of Delaware

    Come up and feel the sun
    A new morning is begun
    Another day will make it clear
    Why your stars should guide us here…

    We are sailing to Philadelphia
    A world away from the coaly Tyne
    Sailing to Philadelphia
    To draw the line
    The Mason-Dixon line

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    James Taylor: vocals
    Paul Franklin (honorary 96er): pedal steel
  • 3. Who’s Your Baby Now
    The rock you stood upon
    Is broken up and gone
    Hey baby, who’s your baby now?

    On the slipway of your dream
    Stands someone else’s scheme
    Hey baby, who’s your baby now?

    Your baby now, baby now
    Your baby now, your baby now

    The ancient trade you ply
    Ain’t enough to get you by
    Hey baby who’s your baby now?

    The yard is locked and closed
    The old guard has been deposed
    Hey baby, who’s your baby now?

    Your baby now, baby now
    Your baby now, your baby now

    You always had to be the kind
    To have to say what’s on your mind
    And hey, you really showed ’em how

    You used to laugh about
    How you used to dish it out
    But hey, who’s laughing now?

    ‘Cos the rock you stood upon
    Is broken up and gone
    Hey baby, who’s your baby now?

    Yeh the rock you stood upon
    Is broken up and gone
    Hey baby, who’s your baby now?

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Danny Cummings: percussion
  • 4. Baloney Again
    We don’t eat in no white restaurants
    We’re eatin’ in the car
    Baloney again, baloney again
    We don’t sleep in no white hotel bed
    We’re sleeping in the car, baloney again
    You don’t strut around in this country towns
    You best stay in the car
    Look on ahead don’t stare around
    You best stay where you are
    You’re a long way from home, boy
    Don’t push your luck too far
    Baloney again

    Twenty-two years we’ve sung the word
    Since nineteen thirty-one
    Amen, I say amen
    Now the young folk want to praise the lord
    With guitar, bass and drums, amen
    Well I’ll never get tired of Jesus
    But it’s been a heavy load
    Carrying His precious love
    Down a long dirt road
    We’re a long way from home
    Just let’s pay the man and go
    Baloney again

    The Lord is my shepherd
    He leadeth me in pastures green
    He gave us this day
    Our daily bread and gasoline
    Go under the willow
    Park her up beside the stream
    Shoulders for pillows
    Lay down your head and dream
    Shoulders for pillows
    Lay down your head and dream

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Jim Hoke: harmonica & autohar
    Robert Bailey, Louis Nunley, Duane Starling, Chris Willis: vocals
  • 5. The Last Laugh
    Don’t you love the sound
    Of the last laugh my friend
    Don’t you love the sound
    Of the last laugh at the end

    Down in the gutter with the mad old soldiers
    Down in the scuppers with the drunken sailors
    Down in the gutter with the metal mad old soldiers
    But the last laugh, baby is yours

    And don’t you love the sound
    Of the last laugh going down
    Games you thought you’d learned
    You neither lost nor won

    Dreams have crashed and burned
    But you’re still going on
    Out on highway with the road gang working
    Up on a mountain with the cold wind blowing

    Out on the highway with the road band working
    But the last laugh, baby is yours
    And don’t you love the sound
    Of the last laugh going down

    They had you crying but you came up smiling
    They had you crawling and you came up flying
    They had you crying and you came up smiling
    And the last laugh, baby is yours

    And don’t you love the sound
    Of the last laugh going down
    Yeh don’t you love the sound
    Of the last laugh going down

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Van Morrison: vocals
    Jim horn: tenor & baritone saxaphone
    Wayne Jackson: trumpet
    Harvey Thompson: tenor saxaphone
  • 6. Do America
    Well I’ve been it ever since I was a kid at school
    Now they love me in Newcastle and in Liverpool
    I am as hot as a pistol I can’t do no wrong
    I’ve been in Birmingham and Bristol to play my song

    Take the 777 to the USA
    Gonna party all night I’m gonna sleep all day
    See New York City ‘cos I’ve never been
    New York City in a limousine

    Gonna do America do do America
    Do America do do America now

    Take the 777 over to LA
    Gonna party all night I’m gonna sleep all day
    Wake up and drive around
    Get the coolest girl in town

    Do America do do America
    Do America do do America now

    And all the people go na na
    And all the people go ra ra
    And all the people go ga ga when I
    Do America do do America

    Do America do do America
    Do America do do America
    Do America do do America now

    Backstage passes for the food and booze
    Sunglasses for my interviews
    Statue of Liberty
    Everybody looking at me

    Do America do do America
    Do America do do America now

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Paul Franklin: lap steel
  • 7. El Macho
    Your date has gone home
    Now you left on your own sweet own
    You’re a tough talking friend
    Split on you in the bitter end

    And you look like a fine thing Jerry
    yeh you look like a fine thing Jerry
    They say you’re a star
    That’s what the boys all say you are

    I don’t see much TV
    So you don’t mean shit to me
    But you look like a fine thing Jerry
    Yeh you look like a fine thing Jerry

    But they got a name for people like you
    Yeh they do and they got a name for people like me too
    El Macho, El Macho

    Now they want you to sing
    Don’t get shy or anything
    The boys all here
    Gonna buy you another beer

    ‘Cos you look like a fine thing Jerry
    Yeh you look like a fine thing Jerry
    El Macho, El Macho

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Chris Rodrigues & Tim Davis: vocals
    Frank Ricotti: marimba
    Mike Haynes: flugel horn
    Danny Cummings: percussion
  • 8. Prairie Wedding
    We only knew each other by letter
    I went to meet her off the train
    When the smoke had cleared and the dust was still
    She was standing there and speaking my name

    I guarantee she looked like an angel
    I couldn’t think of what I should say
    When Adam saw Eve in the garden
    I believe he felt the selfsame way

    I handed her up on the wagon
    And I loaded up her trunk behind
    She was sitting up there with the gold in her hair
    And I tried to get a hold of my mind

    Think you could love me Mary
    Think we got a chance of a life
    Do you think you could love me Mary
    Now you are to be my wife

    We finally headed out of the station
    And we drove up the home trail
    And when we came on the farm she laid a hand on my arm
    I thought my resolution would fail

    And I froze as she stepped in the doorway
    Stood there as still as could be
    I said I know it ain’t much, it needs a woman’s touch
    Lord, she turned around and looked at me

    Think you could love me Mary
    Think we got a chance of a life
    Do you think you could love me Mary
    Now you are to be my wife

    We had a prairie wedding
    There was a preacher and a neighbour or two
    I gave my golden thing a gold wedding ring
    And the both of us said I do

    When the sun’s going down on the prairie
    And the gold in her hair is aflame
    I say do you really love me Mary and
    I hold her and I whisper her name

    Do you think you could love me Mary
    Think we got a chance of a life
    Do you think you could love me Mary
    Now you are to be my wife

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: vocals
    Paul Franklin: pedal steel
  • 9. Wanderlust
    Big black cloud
    On a yellow plane
    Sure enough it
    Looks like rain
    Packin’ up all our
    Faith and trust
    Me and the wanderlust

    Open window
    Empty bed and chair
    Who’s that callin’
    Ain’t nobody there
    I look behind me
    And I see there’s just
    Me and the wanderlust

    Dead of night
    I had a dream
    Sky was bright yes and the
    Fields were green
    It was down the road
    In the cloud of dust
    Me and the wanderlust

    And I’m on the edge
    Of an endless fall
    Sure enough
    He’s come to call
    Got to go now
    Get on that bus
    Me and the wanderlust

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Paul Franklin: pedal steel
  • 10. Speedway At Nazareth
    After two thousand came two thousand and one
    To be the new champions we were there for to run
    From springtime in Arizona ’til the fall in Monterey
    And the raceways were the battlefields and we fought ’em all the way

    Was at Phoenix in the morning I had a wake-up call
    She went around without a warning put me in the wall
    I drove Long Beach, California with three cracked vertebrae
    And we went on to Indianapolis, Indiana in May

    Well the Brickyard’s there to crucify anyone who will not learn
    I climbed the mountain to qualify went flat through the turns
    But I was down in the might-have-beens and an old pal good as died
    And I sat down in Gasoline Alley and I cried

    Well we were in at the kill again on the Milwaukee Mile
    And in June up in Michigan we were robbed at Belle Isle
    Then it was on to Portland, Oregon for the G.I. Joe
    And I’d blown off almost everyone when my motor let go

    New England, Ontario we died in the dirt
    Those walls from mid-Ohio to Toronto they hurt
    So we came to Road America where we burned up at the lake
    But at the speedway at Nazareth I made no mistake

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: vocals
    Paul Franklin: pedal steel
    Aubrey Haynie: violin
  • 11. Junkie Doll
    Turnpike Lane, Turnpike Lane
    You spiked my arm
    But you missed the vein
    Now it’s all gone
    But the scars remain
    Junkie doll, I was stuck on you
    My junkie doll

    Turnham Green, Turnham Green
    You took me high
    As I’ve ever been
    Now it’s all gone
    And now I’m clean
    Junkie doll I was stuck on you
    My junkie doll

    And a little bit of this’d get you up
    And a little bit of that’d get you down
    And a little bit of this’d get you up
    And a little bit of that’d get you down
    And a little bit of this’d get you up
    And a little bit of that’d get you down
    And a little bit of this’d get you up
    And a little bit of that’d get you down

    Turnpike Lane, Turnpike Lane
    You took my heart, Pan American
    Now rain or shine
    It’s all the same
    Junkie doll, I was stuck on you
    My junkie doll

    A little bit of this’d get you up
    A little bit of that’d get you down
    A little bit of this’d get you up
    A little bit of that’d get you down
    And a little bit of this’d get you up
    A little bit of that’d get you down
    A little bit of this’d get you up
    A little bit of that’d get you down

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Mike Henderson: mandolin
  • 12. Silvertown Blues
    On Silvertown Way the cranes stand high
    Quiet and gray against the still of the sky
    They won’t quit and lay down though the action has died
    They watch the new game in town on the Blackwall side

    From the poisonous drains a vision appears
    A new circle of cranes, a new reason to be here
    A big silver dome rising up into the dawn
    Above the church and the homes where all the silver is gone

    If I’d a bucket of gold, what would I do
    I’d leave the story untold Silvertown blues
    Going down in Silvertown
    Down in Silvertown
    Going down in Silvertown
    Down in Silvertown

    A silver dawn steals over the docks
    A truck with no wheels up on cinderblocks
    Men with no dreams around a fire in a drum
    Scrap metal schemes rusted over and done

    If I’d a bucket of gold, silver would do
    I’d leave the story untold Silvertown blues
    And I’m going down in Silvertown
    Down in Silvertown
    Going down in Silvertown
    Down in Silvertown

    When you’re standing on thin and dangerous ice
    You can knock and walk in for citizens’ advice
    They’ll tell you where you can turn, where you can go
    There’s nothing they can tell me I don’t already know

    If I’d a bucket of gold, silver would do
    I’d leave the story untold Silvertown blues
    And I’m going down in Silvertown
    Down in Silvertown
    Going down in Silvertown
    Down in Silvertown

    From the Canning Town train I see a billboard high
    There’s a big silver plane rising up into the sky
    And I can make out the words ‘seven flights every day’
    Says six of those birds are bound for J.F.K.

    If I’d a bucket of gold, silver would do
    I’d leave the story untold Silvertown blues
    And I’m going down in Silvertown
    Down in Silvertown
    Going down in Silvertown
    Down in Silvertown

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Glenn Tilbrook & Chris Difford: vocals
  • 13. Sands of Nevada
    These tables are haunted
    By the ghosts of Las Vegas
    Their chips were once mountains
    But they came here to play
    They could take me if they wanted
    But I have nothing worth counting
    And like the sands of Nevada
    They go drifting away

    Lady luck’s still a mystery
    With her head on my shoulder
    And I don’t know why
    I still want her to dance
    I guess that’s all history
    What it is, is I’m older
    And I’m still a fool
    For a one-way romance

    Her dice were red rubies
    They rolled and they tumbled
    And I never saw time
    Running out with my roll
    And in a wasteland of cut glass
    My dreams have all crumbled
    And I’ve paid with whatever
    I had left for a soul

    Now the dawn’s has broken even
    On an empty horizon
    No reason for folding
    No reason to stay
    It’s too soon to be leaving
    Too late for criticising
    They go drifting away

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS
    Paul Franklin: pedal steel
  • 14. One More Matinee
    Here’s one of the two of us
    In 1954 don’t laugh
    I keep all of the pictures
    Are you going to take a photograph
    Here’s something nice for you
    A dear old thing came to a show
    Last time here we did
    An interview on local radio

    Make yourself at home my darling
    Come on in
    Hand me down that jar love
    Can I offer you a gin

    We’re proud to be the oldest
    Ugly sisters in variety
    There’s not the glamour now
    You see what happened to society
    There’s another light bulb gone
    They don’t all answer to the switch
    I don’t know how we carry on
    And her she couldn’t care the bitch

    But in a while the old boys
    In the band begin to play
    And in a while the houselights
    And the curtains slide away

    And something’s going to happen
    To make your whole life better
    Your whole life better one day
    Something’s going to happen
    To make your whole life better
    Your whole life better one day

    Now the landlady’s all squared away
    It’s just a temporary deal
    I’m afraid tonight it’s take-away
    You see there is no evening meal
    Don’t worry dear you shall go to the ball
    I think the fairy said
    These suitcases have seen it all
    From under someone else’s bed

    You want to smile those tears away
    Now don’t you cry
    You want to know what I say
    I say never say die

    ‘Cos something’s going to happen
    To make your whole life better
    Your whole life better one day
    Something’s going to happen
    To make your whole life better
    Your whole life better one day