Song of the Day 12/5: Mark Knopfler, “Sailing to Philadelphia”

Guest post by Nathan Arizona

Two Englishmen sail west across the Atlantic and finally spy “the capes of Delaware.” They have a big job ahead. As this Mark Knopfler song about them says, they’ve come to America to “draw the line.”

They are the surveyors Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason. They spring to life in this pretty song with a slightly wistful flavor.

Knopfler sings the part of Dixon, the “Geordie boy” from the North of England who likes the ladies and his drink but also became an important scientist. James Taylor takes the part of Mason, who disdained the family business to become a “stargazer.” “They cut me out for baking bread/But I had other dreams instead.”

Their efforts would settle a territorial dispute between the Penn family of Pennsylvania and the Calverts of Maryland by establishing a clear horizontal line between the two colonies. A vertical line would separate Delaware and Maryland.

Knopfler packs a lot into just six stanzas: two character studies and insight into their experience that goes beyond the textbooks.

Mason is apprehensive and skeptical about the project in the wilds of America. “Now, you’re a good surveyor Dixon/But I swear you’ll make me mad/The West will kill us both/You gullible Geordie lad/You talk of liberty/How can America be free/A Geordie and a baker’s boy/In the forests of the Iroquois”

The enthusiastic Dixon wants to lift Mason’s spirits with visions of a new world. “Come up and feel the sun/A new morning has begun/Another day will make it clear/Why your stars should guide us here. ”

All this, plus Knopfler’s characteristically beautiful guitar work.

Somebody on Youtube posted visuals to accompany the song.