Sails

The Empty Sky album, recorded in 1968, released in the UK in 1969, and not seen on these shores until 1975, is a tentative, if often surprisingly good, beginning effort and "Sails" is one of that album's best tracks.

It's a nifty, Stones-circa-1967-style account of dockside seduction, enhanced and made more memorable by the underrated Caleb Quaye's guitar work, especially the nimble, Claptonesque solo, which was so good that it was chosen to represent the track in the album-closing medley Hay Chewed. Taupin's lyrics are direct and to the point, and it would be several years before John went this blues-rockish again.