ODE TO BIG BLUE
Gordon Lightfoot
1972


The oceans of the world were the home of Big Blue
He was the greatest monster that the world ever knew
And the place that he loved best was the waters to the west
Around the blue Pacific he did roam.

Big Blue moved alone for a mighty Blue was he 
And the battles of the whales was an awesome sight to see 
And he took them one by one and he drove them all away 
In the mating of the day he was the king.

Big Blue had fifty wives and he sired forty sons 
Though most of them fell victim to the cruel harpoon guns 
Ah but he was too much wise to get caught by the gunners' eyes 
And so he lived at sea a hundred years.

His mouth was as large as a tunnel so they say 
His hide was thick as leather and his eyes quick and small 
And his back was all scarred by the times he got away 
And he knew the smell of whalers did Big Blue.

Big Blue passed away to his natural decay 
Beside the Arctic Circle as he travelled up that way 
And there never was a man who was born with a gunner's hand 
Who ever took a pan to Big Blue.

Now the gray whale has run and the sperm is almost done 
The Finbacks and the Greenland Rights have all passed and gone
They've been taken by the men for the money they could spend 
And the killing never ends, it just goes on.

The oceans of the earth were the home of Big Blue 
He was the greatest monster that the world ever knew 
The place that he loved best was the waters to the west 
Around the blue Pacific he did roam.




(Transcribed by David Story - February 2013)