Ah, such an uplifting classic, that was on that legendary early 70ies double LP sampler of Warner Brothers (and some Atlantic) artists somewhat confusingly captioned "Heavy Metal" - at a time when the term was not yet popular or as pigeon-holed as today ...
Everyone of those songs made me curious for the band behind it and Ride Captain Ride was among my favorites (it was the last track on side 4). I'd go as far as to say as that that double album someone lent me around 1974 in Kinshasa was pivotal for my musical taste even today (I hear Dave moaning in the background: "
stadium rock ..."). It explains why I can like something "hip" (= rock critics like it) such as the MC5 alongside something totally unhip as Foghat (rock critics laugh about it). Both acts were on that album - as were T. Rex and Yes, another combination you don't see too often.
Sorry for not being able to downsize the pictures enough so that they show properly here (you have to move the bar at the end of this post sideways to see it all).
Blood, Sweat & Tears did a version some years later
and even though it has both the blessing of Mike Pinera as a co-writer and the typically lavishly free BS&T arrangement (which I usually dig and David Clayton-Thomas can do no wrong for me in any case), the Blues Image version hits more home with me (Dave is gonna hate the BS&T version, way too jazzy!).
Mike is still doing it nicely:
