“Sailing to Philadelphia” by Mark Knopfler appears on his album of the same name (2000).

This is a story song, told in two monologues between Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon as they travel from Great… Read More [Verse 1: Mark Knopfler]

I am Jeremiah Dixon

I am a Geordie boy

A glass of wine with you, sir

And the ladies I'll enjoy

All Durham and Northumberland

Is measured up by my own hand

It was my fate from birth

To make my mark upon the earth

[Verse 2: James Taylor]

He calls me Charlie Mason

A stargazer am I

It seems that I was born

To chart the evening sky

They'd cut me out for baking bread

But I had other dreams instead

This baker's boy from the West Country

Would join the Royal Society

[Chorus: James Taylor, Mark Knopfler & James Taylor]

We are sailing to Philadelphia

A world away from the coaly Tyne

Sailing to Philadelphia

To draw the line

The Mason-Dixon Line

[Verse 3: James Taylor]

Now you're a good surveyor, Dixon

But I swear you'll make me mad

The West will kill us both

You gullible Geordie lad

You talk of liberty

How can America be free

A Geordie and a baker's boy

In the forests of the Iroquois

[Verse 4: Mark Knopfler]

Now hold your head up, Mason

See, America lies there

The morning tide has raised

The capes of Delaware

Come up and feel the sun

A new morning has begun

Another day will make it clear

Why your stars should guide us here

[Chorus: Mark Knopfler, Mark Knopfler & James Taylor]

We are sailing to Philadelphia

A world away from the coaly Tyne

Sailing to Philadelphia

To draw the line

The Mason-Dixon Line

The Mason-Dixon Line