There’s a wonderful scene at the end of the very first episode of the cult TV series Freaks and Geeks where a wallflower of a kid gets a chance to slow dance with his crush. But then the song kicks into a higher-rocking gear and he’s forced to improvise a much faster dance on the fly.
The scene is set to “Come Sail Away,” the 1977 hit single from the band Styx. And that sudden change of pace says a lot about the inventiveness of both the song and the band that put it together. Here is the story and meaning behind this beloved classic rock staple.
Believing in the Illusion
When they were at their peak, Styx could throw a wide variety of pitches at a listener. The Chicago quintet came of age in the era of prog rock, so they could do the whole song-suite thing. They also developed into thundering rockers, especially once Tommy Shaw joined the band to join James Young and give them a twin guitar approach.
On top of all that, they had a songwriter in Dennis DeYoung with a knack for heartfelt balladry. In fact, it was one of those ballads, “Lady,” that helped Styx move from being a regional act into more of a mainstream powerhouse. But even that transformation took them a while.
The albums that they released in the immediate aftermath of “Lady” didn’t quite capitalize on its success, at least commercially. That left the band a bit frustrated—frustrations that fed into the songwriting and conceptual lean of their 1977 album The Grand Illusion, especially the first single “Come Sail Away.”
Setting “Sail”
A band trip to Hawaii was the seed from which “Come Sail Away” sprung. Dennis DeYoung explained to Songwriter Universe the rest rose up from the band suffering from second-banana status:
“We backed up every ‘70s classic rock act imaginable—you name it, we were always the guys that went on first. And we would stand backstage sometimes, and look at all the equipment [the headliners] had and the nice buses and everything. We were thinking … were we ever going to participate (and become headliners)? So ‘Come Sail Away’ is the marrying of yearning, with the metaphor of sailing away onto beautiful waters, which I got from Hawaii. Those two things came together. ‘Come Sail Away’ is really a song about wanting to be in a better place. I want to go someplace and be the captain. ‘Come Sail Away’ … sail away to wherever you want to go.”
“Come Sail Away” combined everything that made Styx so special. There was DeYoung’s touch with the slow stuff, the inventive arrangement and sci-fi lyrics that nodded to the prog rock crowd, and the crunching hard rock finish. And once it hit big (No. 8 on the pop charts), it propelled the band to the highest echelons of the arena rock world.
What is the Meaning of “Come Sail Away”?
“Come Sail Away” ends in triumph, but only after acknowledging the tribulations we all must face to get there. Note the narrator begins unsure if he can go through with his grand aspirations: And I’ll try, oh Lord, I’ll try / To carry on.
Before he can get to that point, he’s besieged by thoughts of the past: Reflections in the waves spark my memory. Those remembrances are tinged with sadness: We lived happily forever / So the story goes / But somehow we missed out / On the pot of gold. All these trials make the eventual deliverance to a higher plane in the song’s second half that much sweeter.
Maybe Dennis DeYoung sensed Styx were on the brink of their breakout when he wrote “Come Sail Away.” Or maybe he was trying to will it into existence. In any case, the song did become a classic, and it now operates as a hopeful beacon for anyone trying to fulfill the elusive dreams lingering in their head and heart.
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Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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