Ode to Big Blue - Gordon Lightfoot

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 feel 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

And the place that he loved best was the waters to the west

Around the blue Pacific he did roam