The Bilbo Band - Winedark Open Sea (Paul McCartney cover)

Ukraine, 13 August 2020

Open up your heart
If you want to set me free
Full of love, your love.
Sailing on a wine dark open sea.
Sailing on a wine dark open sea.
Lighten up, my heart.
Leave it to the evening breeze.
Give me love, your love.
Sailing on a wine dark open sea.
Sailing on a wine dark open sea.
Oh my, I feel love for you
Spreading through my body,
I remember how
We can be so loving.
I feel love for you now,
I feel love for you right now.
Loosen up, my heart.
Let me have some time to be
With a love, my love.
Sailing on a wine dark open sea.
Sailing on a wine dark open sea.
Oh my, I feel love for you
Spreading through my body,
I remember how
We can be so loving.
I feel love for you now,
I feel love for you right now.
Sailing on a wine dark open sea.
Sailing on a wine dark open sea.
Oh, I feel love for you now.
I feel love for you right now.
I feel love corr you now.
Baby I feel love for you right now,
We're sailing on a wine dark open sea.
Sailing on a wine dark open sea.

“Winedark Open Sea” is a track from 1993 album “Off The Ground“. Paul started to write it ( “Sailing On The Winedark Open Sea” was the current name) in August 1991 while on holidays (“Calico Skies” was written at the same period), and recorded a demo a month after.

“Winedark Sea” is likely a reference to Homer, who mentioned this line dozens of time in his epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey:

The wine-dark sea is a traditional English translation of οἶνοψ πόντος (oinops pontos), an epithet in Homer of uncertain meaning. A literal translation is “wine-face sea”. The only other use of oinops in the works of Homer is for oxen, where it seems to describe a reddish color, which has given rise to various speculations about what it could mean about the blue seas.

From Wikipedia
That’s a nice track, simply played and underproduced as well. I know I would have added more to it, but it’s a case of the magic’s in there and you’ve got to leave it alone.

Hamish Stuart – From the “New World Tour” tour book
“Winedark Open Sea” was rehearsed in anticipation of the 1993 New World Tour, but was finally never played live. A rehearsal turned into a jam was aired on McCartney’s Oobu Joobu radio show in 1995.