Charlie and I have recently become enamored with the song “Come Sail Away” by Styx.
It’s admittedly an odd song. It opens quietly with solo piano, slowly building as it runs through two verses about heading out to sea in search of a better future.
Then the song transforms. Electric guitars erupt. The drums pound away. The lead singer, Dennis DeYoung, shifts his vocals from quiet and contemplative into a raucous, energized tone.
But still, the chorus hasn’t arrived. DeYoung sings four more lines about a gallery of angels appearing over their heads, singing a song of hope, and the angel’s song is, at last, the song’s iconic chorus, a full two minutes and 57 seconds into the song.
While most songs are wrapping up, Styx has finally arrived at the chorus.
Then there is the bridge, long and filled with a variety of futuristic, synthesized sounds and instruments, including synthesized flugelhorn, French horn, and flute.
Oddly enough, the official video for the song does not include the bridge, lopping off a whopping minute and a half from the song.
Up until now, the song is odd only in structure and instrumentation. But then we hit the last four lines of the song, where it’s revealed that those angels were actually aliens, and the characters in the song climb aboard their starship and head off to outer space.
The lyrics:
I thought that they were angels
But to my surprise
We climbed aboard their starship
We headed for the skies, singing…
So yes, “Come Sail Away” is actually a song about aliens coming to Earth and inviting human beings to join them in outer space.
When Charlie finally listened closely to these final lines and discovered what this song was about, we couldn’t believe it. We burst out laughing, then we fell even more in love with the song.
Sometimes weird is so good.
