Sail Away

The title track of the 1972 album has an ostinato piano part played by Newman, who also sings, with a full orchestra. The Guardian describes it as sung by an American slave trader in Africa making his pitch to the locals, with sweeping strings and swelling brass. Newman has said the idea began when a producer, the husband of the actress Leslie Caron, wanted to make a film that gave artists such as Van Morrison and Jimi Hendrix ten minutes each. The film was never made, but Newman had a picture of a slave ship and a sea shanty, a man in a clearing singing to a crowd. He did not want to say only that slavery is awful, because that is too easy.

Stephen Holden's 1972 Rolling Stone review said it presents the American dream of a promised land as it might have been put to black Africa in the days of slave running. Greil Marcus wrote in 1975 that it is like a vision of heaven superimposed on hell. Robert Christgau called it a masterpiece stranger and more masterful than Newman's other masterpieces. Rolling Stone's 2011 list of 500 greatest songs placed it at 268, and the Guardian ranked it second among his 20 greatest.

Covers

Covers include Ray Charles, Etta James, Linda Ronstadt, Harry Nilsson and Dave Matthews. Bobby Darin recorded it too. Newman said Darin missed the point, and that he guaranteed Etta James knew what it was about. Newman played it at the first Farm Aid concert in 1985.