Drake
From the Songs & Stories album · Tropical folk-rock · Cartagena
Demo recording
Produced with AI music tools, not performed by me or a band. The lyrics are mine, and a live version with real musicians is the next step.
In 1586 Francis Drake sailed into Cartagena and held the city for ransom. The first great vagabond had come to town. Four centuries later, another crew of wanderers kept rolling back through the old walls and bougainvillea nights. Born to the tide, born to the run. Cartagena remains, and we're already gone.
Lyrics
Verse 1
Fifteen thirty-three, the cross and banner came,
Heredia locked the silver and the gold behind the stone,
Every ounce of it for the Spanish crown.
Then eighty-six, ol' Drake came sailing through the Boca Grande,
Burned the fleet in the harbor for Elizabeth's crown —
And the vagabond had come.
The vagabond had come.
Chorus 1
Born to the tide, born to the run,
Every vagabond chasing the unknown,
Cartagena calls from the shore,
There's always room for one soul more,
We'll wander her streets through bougainvillea nights.
Verse 2
Time and again, the six of us came rolling back to town,
Gorgeous Cartagena, we knew her inside her walls,
Stories you wouldn't believe — and maybe they were true,
One was a spy who talked peace down in Havana,
One caught lead with the Sandinistas, and never wrote a word of it,
One the heartbreaker, the most charming dude you'd ever met,
One lived a step from disaster, and slipped it every time,
Galleons down below, old ghosts all around,
Nothing but time for these vagabonds.
Nothing but time.
Final Chorus
Born to the tide, born to the run,
Every vagabond chasing the unknown,
Cartagena calls from the shore,
There's always room for one soul more —
Old ghosts still wandering the streets as before,
Through bougainvillea nights till the morning comes on,
Cartagena remains, and we're already gone.
