This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Grandma loved a sailor
Who sailed the frozen sea
Grandpa was a whaler
And he took me on his knee
He said, son, I'm going crazy
From livin' on the land
Got to find my shipmates
And walk on foreign sands
This old man was graceful
With silver in his smile
He smoked a briar pipe and
He walked four country miles
Singing songs of shady sisters
And old time liberty
Songs of love and songs of death
And songs to set men free
Yea!
I've got three ships and sixteen men
A course for ports unread
I'll stand at mast, let north winds blow
'Till half of us are dead
Land ho!
Well, if I get my hands on a dollar bill
Gonna buy a bottle and drink my fill
If I get my hands on a number five
Gonna skin that little girl alive
If I get my hand on a number two
Come back home and marry you
Marry you
Marry you, alright!
Ey, land ho!
Ey, land ho!
Well, if I get back home and I feel alright
You know, babe, I'm gonna love you tonight
Love you right
Love you right
Ey, land ho!
Ey, land ho!
Ey, land ho!
Who sailed the frozen sea
Grandpa was a whaler
And he took me on his knee
He said, son, I'm going crazy
From livin' on the land
Got to find my shipmates
And walk on foreign sands
This old man was graceful
With silver in his smile
He smoked a briar pipe and
He walked four country miles
Singing songs of shady sisters
And old time liberty
Songs of love and songs of death
And songs to set men free
Yea!
I've got three ships and sixteen men
A course for ports unread
I'll stand at mast, let north winds blow
'Till half of us are dead
Land ho!
Well, if I get my hands on a dollar bill
Gonna buy a bottle and drink my fill
If I get my hands on a number five
Gonna skin that little girl alive
If I get my hand on a number two
Come back home and marry you
Marry you
Marry you, alright!
Ey, land ho!
Ey, land ho!
Well, if I get back home and I feel alright
You know, babe, I'm gonna love you tonight
Love you right
Love you right
Ey, land ho!
Ey, land ho!
Ey, land ho!
Lyrics submitted by kevin, edited by stevemarvllous
Land Ho! Lyrics as written by John Paul Densmore Jim Morrison
Lyrics © Doors Music Company
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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gotta love the guitar work by robbie on the outro..a very underestimated musician from a great band. doors for life.
I love this song. It's probably my 3rd favorite song on the Morrison Hotel album.
Sadly though, I don't really have an explanation of a meaning for the song. I was hoping someone else would have one.
Considering its placement on the album I'm tempted to think this song is a continuation of 'ship of fools'
Maybe they were thinking about being sailors or fishermen? Port to port, drinking and women, travelling and whatnot
I love this song, but I love Morrison's talent and I have always had a fettish for the phrase "Land Ho." Something about those two words is sexy. (Just call me weird.) I agree w/ your take but you omitted the line about him returning home to marry his love. He's looking for excitement and freedom, but perhaps knows that it's a temporary state with something better at the end of the rainbow, so to speak. But who really knows...only Morrison, and he's not talkin'
this is from a highly underrated doors album "Morrison Hotel." great tune should get more comments. rock on people!
great...just awsome song
Maybe what he means by "number five" and "number two" is $5 and $2. The lines before these say "If I get my hands on a dollar bill Gonna buy a bottle and drink my fill." From this I get that he's probably in some far off land with no way to get home at the moment and maybe by "If I get my hands on a number five Gonna skin that little girl alive" he could mean that if he gets his hand on $5 he's gonna buy a prostitute and with the $2 he could afford to make another trip home.
I'm not sure about this at all, I'm just saying it's a possibility and I could be totally wrong about this.
This song is one of my favorites - but I say that about a lot of Doors songs. For me the child is listening to his Grandfather and looking at him and when I see old people now I imagine them as young.
This old man was graceful, with silver in his smile. I imagine as a young man he was a really good sailor and that graceful way he moved saved him when he was on the water.
That is what I think of when I hear the song - that and I listened to a lot in college and none of my friends liked it.
good tune, wots it about any one
A young boy listens to the stories and songs his grandfather tells. Whether they're true or not, they describe the exciting voyages the old man took as a sailor when he was much younger, and how life since then has been dull and he would like to travel overseas again. Most of the lyrics describe very clearly one part or another of those stories. I'm not sure what "number five" and "number two" alude to... apparently they have something to do with the different kinds of fortune or misfortune that a young sailor might experience.
I agree with chimaera01 , and maybe the two dollar bill can be considered lucky because of it
s rarity, so ita good omen to marry when you find one