Story Behind The Song
If one reads the lyrics without the melody in mind it might seem like a song of vanity and mockery of someone who ignores the "missing piece" but that is not my intention and I think the melody expresses it in a more balanced way. For the first 20 years of my life, the person described in the song was me. After God showed me the missing piece in my life, I imagined what it would be like if I had gone for decades in this mindset and wrote this song.
As a sailing vessel cannot do what it was intended to do with a missing piece like the sail, our human "vessels" cannot do what we were intended to do with the missing piece we all need. We often think it is situations or external forces that keeps us from finding this "missing piece" - the satisfaction and fulfillment we want - but the only way to find satisfaction and fulfillment in all situations is to have the "vessel's" creator provide this missing piece. It is then we can sail into life, with all its storms and beauty.
| Song Length |
4:08 |
Genre |
Folk - General |
| Lead Vocal |
Male Vocal |
Subject |
Age, Aging, Life |
| Language |
English |
Era |
1970 - 1979 |
Lyrics
Twenty-one and going strong
You listen well but never long
Out to find those islands in the sun
Thirty-three and there's no retreat
Taking the falls and landed on your feet
Someday you won't have to fall at all
Someday you'll be sure to have it all
The canvas on the mast
Is all the sailor lacks
To catch the wind and carry him across the open sea
It's the vessel not the storm
That ties him to the port
Dreaming that he'll sail away without the missing piece
Forty-four and few rewards
Turning older and growing hard
But you still smell those roses in the wind
Fifty-five, give it one more try
Bury the dreams that have bled and died
Someday you won't have to dream at all
Someday you'll be sure to have it all
The canvas on the mast
Is all the sailor lacks
To catch the wind and carry him across the open sea
It's the vessel not the storm
That ties him to the port
Dreaming that he'll sail away without the missing piece
Old and gray and one more breath
Pass the torch to the younger hand
Someday he will sail across the sea
Someday he might find the missing piece.
The canvas on the mast
Is all the sailor lacks
To catch the wind and carry him across the open sea
It's the vessel not the storm
That ties him to the port
Dreaming that he'll sail away without the missing piece