Goats in the Arts: Song of the Sea Goat (1973)

The days of my youth were spent, as I imagine yours were, listening to Burl Ives records.  It is no surprise that I favored Burl Ives Sings 'Little White Duck' (And Other Children's Favorites), given that this particular LP includes a heartwarming rendition of "Bill Grogan's Goat".  A sweet celebration of the bravery, timeliness and appetite of that nameless goat, the song is truly timeless for an audience of any age.

 

I have recently become aware of another timeless, albeit more complex and mature, goat composition.  We can thank Pete Sinfield and dreamy 1973 for this gem entitled "Song of the Sea Goat" (art by Koldo Barroso): 

The sea goat casts Aquarian runes through beads of mirrored tears,


Suave pirates words of apricot crawl out of your veneer


Anoint your eyes with Midas’ oil and make it still appear


Aladdin’s lamp is glowing bright transmuting panacea;


To fill your souls with sugared holes.


“Oh can’t you hear” sang the sea goat “the nonsense makes me numb.”

“It’s near, it’s clear” sang the sea goat “we live to overcome,


The madman’s voice and his nowhere choice,


The pain that drains like an endless day of rain.”

The sea goat reads the flight of birds and writes upon the sand;


Gold waterfalls of autumn wheat slip through a pointing hand


Whose fingers stiff with sentences still beckon to the band


To play the “Best Foot Forward March” and deafen all the land.


With hollow words, it’s so absurd!


“Take your stand” sang the sea goat “the night goes on and on.”


“Unwrap your plans” sang the sea goat “tell everyone you’ve gone


To touch the earth and to see the birth


The smile, the style down an unspun mile of life.”

It fills the air! It fills the air!


The song of the sea goat shaking in the domes


The song of the sea goat as endlessly he roams,


Between the sunset’s crimson veil


On smooth grey streets where the drunkard spins his tale.

The sea goat sips and hurls his glass along the smoke-filled road


Where shuttered snakes of brakeless trains run aching with their load


Of spring-eyed, tonguetied, wooldyed lads who kiss the L-shaped goat


Which soon will smear their uniforms with blood, whitewash & woad.


Damn iron minded, gold braid blinded, officers and gentlemen!

“God!” sang the sea goat “is always on both sides.”


“Change” sang the sea goat “is constant as the tides."

“And this play” sang the sea goat “is strangely synthesised


When you're part of a cast where the first comes last


Where the east goes west and the sun is burning out
And you're part of a cast where the first comes last


Where the east goes west and the sun is burning out”

Lyrics © copyright Pete Sinfield 1973.