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Jupiter Coyote- Ship In The Bottle. I wrote this song when I was 21 years old at Wofford College. I stole a Guild 12 string guitar from my good friend Dan Rhodes who lived on Wightman Hall with me. I had been messing with that melody and knew it was going to be a multi part song, with a more acoustic intro and then building to a full band song. I had just left the University Of South Carolina, where I was on a basketball scholarship, and had transferred to Wofford, where again I was playing bb, another story there for later. But this was a time when I was really starting to soul search. Did I want to really continue on with the bb thing and try to make it to the pros or did I start paying attention to this music thing that was really starting to nag me? This song is kind of a Rites of Passage song.

When I was a kid, my great grandfather in Commerce, TX had a clipper ship in a bottle on his mantle. I would stare at it for hours wondering how it got in there. At some point that image from my childhood became the symbol and theme of the song, relating how sad it must be to be trapped inside something when you really just want to be free, like sailing that ship on the sea. I don't know that I necessarily felt trapped, but I sure felt like I wanted to go do what I wanted to do. Soon, I knew I would have completed all expected steps in my young life, and I could just get out there and see what was going on in the world. Nothing like getting in a rock n roll band to fuel the untamed lure of the wild wild west. So that is what this song is about. It still resonates today really. Like I said yesterday, follow your nose, trust your gut, and play it the way you feel it, whatever it is you are doing. The ride is the fun part, not the destination. I thought it would be a good song for John to sing. He had a better voice than me. If you like these stories and you have not done so, please take a second to like is on Facebook.

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Ship

Years ago a child's brown eyes stared at the mantle piece

Wondered how the ship got in the bottle

When he tried to find the answers, nobody would tell him

And the ship just sat there in the bottle

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Yesterday a man's brown eyes stared at the mantle pice, 

Stared at the ship in the bottle

Corners of his eyes teared when at last he realized

He was sailing on that ship in the bottle

CHO

And I'm sailing on that ship in the bottle

With no salt upon my pitch or wind in my sails

I'm sailing on that ship in the bottle

Could there be a storm brewing up ahead

Could there be a storm brewing up ahead

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Ship in the bottle never sails the ocean blue

It sits there on the mantle piece with no captain or a crew

Ship in the bottle is a reflection of me

Showing me all the things my eyes could never see

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Ship in the bottle never gets to run ashore

It sits there on the mantle piece like it sat there years before

No cargo in its hull, no silver and gold

No leeward winds against my skin

No cannons to reload

CHO

As I sit back in my chair fading back to reality

That dream on the mantle piece keeps staring back at me

Still I wish and search for strength to set my spirit free

And take that dream on the mantle piece and sail it on the sea.

CHO

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