Grand Funk Railroad – I'm Your Captain

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Everybody,
listen to me,
and return me, my ship.
I'm your captain, I'm your captain,
though I'm feeling mighty sick.
I've been lost now,
days uncounted,
and it's months since,
I've seen home.
Can you hear me, can you hear me,
or am I all alone?
If you return me,
to my home port,
I will kiss you,
mother earth.
Take me back now, take me back now,
to the port, of my birth.
Am I in my cabin dreaming,
or are you really scheming,
to take my ship away from me.
You'd better think about it,
I just can't live without it,
so please don't take my ship from me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I can feel the hand,
of a stranger,
and it tightening,
around my throat.
Heaven help me, heaven help me,
take this stranger, from my boat.
I'm your captain, I'm your captain,
though I'm feeling mighty sick.
Everybody, listen to me,
and return me, my ship,
I'm your captain, yeah yeah yeah yeah
I'm your captain, yeah yeah yeah yeah
I'm your captain, yeah yeah yeah yeah
I'm your captain, yeah yeah yeah yeah

I'm getting closer to my home.
I'm getting closer to my home.

Send "I'm Your Captain" Ringtone to Cell


Lyrics submitted by spliphstar

Track duration: 09:59

"I'm Your Captain" as written by Larry Carlton

Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., CONEXION MEDIA GROUP, INC.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


I'm Your Captain song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:Since the song was written by Larry Carlton, it refers to the USS Pueblo incident of 1968 in Korea. The ship was boarded and captured by North Korean forces on 23 January 1968, in what is known as the Pueblo incident or alternatively as the Pueblo crisis or the Pueblo affair. The capture, less than a week after President Lyndon B. Johnson's State of the Union Address and only a week before the start of the Tet Offensive, and subsequent 11-month prisoner drama were major incidents in the Cold War.

    North Korea stated that Pueblo strayed into their territorial waters, but the United States maintains that the vessel was in international waters at the time of the incident.

    Pueblo, still held by North Korea today, officially remains a commissioned vessel of the United States Navy.[2] It was moored along the Taedong River in Pyongyang, and used there as a museum ship. Pueblo is the only ship of the U.S. Navy currently being held captive.



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    Flag klwrighton April 09, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I believe that it is an ode to L. Ron Hubbard and Dianetics/Scientology.
    Flag akasongon April 20, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:His ship/home seems to be his life...he's been lost, he's feeling sick, he wants to go to his home port and will kiss Mother Earth if he can get back to his "home" (his life before his addiction). The hands of a stranger are strangling him on his boat/life, "is the stranger (drugs) scheming to take his ship/life away?"..it could be the war but why is he sick, lost and "cant live without it"? i think its drugs especially because on a youtube 9.5 minute video from a Madison Square Garden (MSG) concert in Dec'72? there's an interview with the band saying they are giving earnings from 2 concerts to Pheonix House for drug addiction. Seems like a similar message..very great analogy in lyrics! AND GREAT SONG!
    Flag graphicworkzon February 02, 2011   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:Ship being life rocking the boat. Says he’s lost. Home being heaven. He’s sea sick asking for help either from the crew or heaven.. Seagulls so peaceful. Flute part is pretty.. Very helpful site. Been popular with me so I joined. Forgot what I was thinking about. Thanks.
    Flag KeyNoteson January 04, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:We are all our own captians of our own life in some way. We have the free will to do as we choose. we know that without our free will we are lost, like a ship in the ocean. our ship is our way, the path of ones life. the ship we steer. we all have our own ship - it is our freedom, the decision we have choosen. our friends, our family, our values, beleifs and choices, good or bad, are our crew. the song descibes a sick captian, ill, dellutional. knows what is wrong and wants to head home. the wrong choices threaten take the ship from him, hey! im the captian of my life! he takes control of his own ship gains clarity and steers it home. where home isn't just always house, something tangible -no. but a feeling.
    Flag highpalmson July 29, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Well, this song meant a great deal to me at the time it was played on the airwaves a great deal
    (which for me was my years in architecture school).

    Although I'd assumed both of the meanings offered above, and they certainly both make sense, for me personally it has always reminded me of the numerous ongoing threats to my personal identity and my continuing struggle to create and maintain it. All of the things outside of us, the expectations and propaganda -- secular, cultural, political, and religious -- that work to make us less sure of what is real for us -- these are the mutinous schemers against which I continue to struggle in order to protect my "ship"(self).

    I was very lucky.
    I haven't suffered from addiction, and I wasn't drafted.
    My struggles are fortunate ones, but quite real nonetheless.

    I just heard this song tonight for the first time in a long time and smiled, ear to ear.
    I came home & googled it for the lyrics, and here I am happily blathering away.

    Cheers.
    Flag postpanglossianon May 27, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:no doubt in my mind it's about drug addiction and trying to get clean. i'm a recovering addict so i can relate. when he's saying i'm your captain, he's saying i should be in conroll, but he's not the drugs are. when you're addicted you lose conroll of yourself. He's wanting to return to being sober he doesn't want to be an addict anymore. I can feel the hand of a stranger and and it's tightning around my throat. When you're an addict you are not yourself at all, the drugs turn you into a different person. he's probably addcited to heroine becouse he's talking about getting sick from withdrawel. Heaven help me take this stanger from my boat, he's saying please help me to get clean. i'm your captain, he's saying i'm in control, i can't let the drugs control me or "control my ship". I'm getting closer to my home, he's in recovery and is getting closer to returning to normal, the way he was before drugs "home". No way this songs about vietnamn, he's just saying that every word in the song relates to battling with drug addiction. it's not very farfetched to think that a rockstar from the 70's was addicted to drugs.
    Flag jr008on March 08, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:Anyone can take this song and make it mean whatever they want it to mean. One person here on the forum said that he saw a video on YouTube that said the song was about the Vietnam War. A few other people said the song is about drug addiction. I know one thing, you can compare the song to heroin addiction. When your out there using, nothing else matters, you do feel so far from your home even though you are sitting on a couch in the physical house. And the lyrics that state hands around his neck, that is the hold that heroin or drugs in general feel when you physically and mentally need them to just to get out of bed and function. So, like I said at the begining of my post, this song can mean different things to different people.
    Flag marimar60on January 09, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Drug addiction, and how Farner was working towards soberness. Amazing song.
    Flag DreamCouncilon August 17, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:hell yeah adamanto75 has it figured out
    Flag Wedenfuddon March 27, 2009   Link

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