I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)  "I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)" is a 1970 song written by American musician Mark Farner and recorded by Grand Funk Railroad as the closing track to their album "Closer to Home". Ten minutes in duration, it is the band's longest studio recording. One of the group's best-known songs, it is composed as two distinct but closely related movements. Its title has been rendered in various ways across many different Grand Funk albums, including "I'm Your Captain", "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home", "Closer to Home/I'm Your Captain", "Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain)", and "Closer to Home". The song conveys the pleas of a captain on a troubled sea voyage and facing a mutiny from his crew. Its use of an orchestra during the long repeated refrains of the closing movement served to differentiate it from much of Grand Funk's work. Several interpretations of the song have been given; most revolve around the Vietnam War, and "I'm Your Captain" is popular among veterans of that conflict. A truncated version of the song was a modest hit single when first released, but the full album track achieved greater airplay on progressive rock radio stations. It has become a classic rock staple and has appeared on several audience-selected lists as one of the best rock songs of all time. The song is composed in the compound binary form that was used for several well-known songs in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The first movement opens with an electric guitar riff from Farner, which aspiring young guitarists of the time learned to imitate. This soon changes into a strummed acoustic guitar paired with a distinctive lead bass line from Mel Schacher, set against a steady drumbeat from Don Brewer accompanied with occasional wah wah guitar flourishes. The chord changes go from D to G to G6/C. The story ostensibly deals with a ship's captain on a troubled voyage and facing a mutiny from his crew. Farner's vocal of the pleading lyric begins:   Everybody, listen to me, and return me, my ship I'm your captain, I'm your captain, although I'm feeling, mighty sick. I've been lost now, days uncounted ... And it's months since, I've seen home. Can you hear me, can you hear me? Or am I ... all alone. The music has a bass break and then drops down to half time before resuming at its normal tempo.