Jim at Song Lyric Sunday has presented us with this challenge:
“Find a song that you feel is an underrated deep album cut.”
OK, friends. Here we go!
“Nantucket Sleighride” is the second studio album by the American hard rock band Mountain, released in January 1971.
The title track “Nantucket Sleighride” (To Owen Coffin) and album title is a reference to the experience of being towed along in a boat by a harpooned whale.
Poor Owen, to whom the song is dedicated, was a young seaman on the Nantucket whaler Essex, which was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in 1820. In the aftermath of the wreck, Coffin was shot and eaten by his shipmates. The story of the Essex was recorded by its First Mate Owen Chase, one of eight survivors, in his 1821 “Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex”.
On the list of 100 Most Underrated Rock Songs, “Nantucket Sleighride” stands in the whopping #10 slot. What?? Are you kidding me? The 10th most underrated rock song of all time. What are these list-compilers smoking?
I don’t have the answer to that and I can’t even hazard a guess. “Nantucket Sleighride” is one of Mountain’s (and Leslie West’s) greatest achievements. It is a stone classic of 1970s heavy metal and a guitarist’s dream. This title track from the album is easily Mountain’s greatest individual song. The band took its inspiration from Cream and turned it into some of the finest guitar driven hard rock ever put on record. If anyone doesn’t agree that Leslie West is a great guitarist and this song is epic, then I suggest they just listen.
#10 FFS!
NAR © 2023
This is Mountain and “Nantucket Sleighride” (To Owen Coffin)
Lyrics
Goodbye, little Robin-Marie
Don’t try following me
Don’t cry, little Robin-Marie
‘Cause you know I’m coming home soon
My ships’ leaving on a three-year tour
The next tide will take us from shore
Windlaced, gather in sail and spray
On a search for the mighty sperm whale
Fly your willow branches
Wrap your body round my soul
Lay down your reeds and drums on my soft sheets
There are years behind us reaching
To the place where hearts are beating
And I know you’re the last true love I’ll ever meet
Starbuck’s sharpening his harpoon
The black man’s playing his tune
An old salt’s sleeping his watch away
He’ll be drunk again before noon
Three years sailing on bended knee
We found no whales in the sea
Don’t cry, little Robin-Marie
‘Cause we’ll be in sight of land soon
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Felix Pappalardi / Gail Collins
Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin) lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
- Leslie West – guitar, vocals
- Felix Pappalardi – bass, vocals, production
- Steve Knight – keyboards
- Corky Laing – drums, percussion
The Elephant's Trunk 
