The Ballad of Chris McCandless
Ellis Paul

He was out on the highway smiling.
A mystic in torn blue jeans.
The kid left his trust fund to come out walking.
He hitched across this country
With a backpack and a head full of dreams.
Could’ve sworn he heard the earth a’talkin’,
talkin’…

“Sometimes,” he said, “don’t it feel
like the concrete’s closing in?
We’re putting bricks on the horizon…”

Was he chasing fool’s gold,
Or a holy man walking
a dirt road till the end?
I hitched a ride with Chris McCandless.
I stepped in the wild of a dream.

The horizon in South Dakota
is an ocean of harvest grain.
In a dusty silo we found work for the taking.
We’d hitched up from California,
But he never told me his real name.
Never told me what past he was out here shaking.
We’re all shaking something.

“Sometimes,” he said, “don’t it feel
like technology’s closing in?
We’re raising towers on the horizon…”

Was he chasing fool’s gold
Or a holy man walking
A dirt road till the end?
I hitched a ride with Chris McCandless
I stepped in the wild of a dream—

A stone,
A path,
A river of glass,

The night sky—
Can you see stars from wherever you are?
Whereever you are?

In a broken school bus they found him
In the heart of the Alaska range
The journey ends
When the heart stops beating—
Time is fleeting

was he chasin fool’s gold,
Or a holy man walking a dirt road
till the end?
I don’t know, but
I hitched a ride with Chris McCandless,
I stepped in the wild with Chris McCandless,
And I felt alive with Chris McCandless.
I was wide awake in the dream,
the dream,
the dream.


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Lyrics by Ellis Paul

  17 Septembers   3, 000 Miles   3,000 Miles   9 Months To Fix The World   Abiola   Albert Einstein   Alice's Champagne Palace   All Things Being The Same   Alone Down Here   Am I Home   Angel   Angel in Manhattan   Art Of Distance   Ashes To Dust   Autobiography of a Pistol   Bad, Bad Blood   Ball Is Coming Down   Ballad Of Chris Mccandless   Because It's There   Bed Song   Ben Franklin   Black Top Train   Blacktop Train   Blizzard   Breaking Through The Radio   Bring Me Backwards   Broke And Hungry   Changing Your Name   Chief Joseph   City Song   Clarity   Clock   Comes A Time   Comfort You   Conversation with a Ghost   Did Galileo Pray?   Did I Ever Know You?   Don't Breathe   Dragonfly   Dragonfly Races   Eighteen   Fireflies   Friday Night   Gentle Arms Of Eden   Georgia O’keeffe   Give In, Give Up   God's Promise   Goodbye Hollywood   Heaven's Wherever You Are   Here She Is   Home   Hurricane Angel   I Like To Swing   I Lost A Day To The Rain   I'm The One To Save   If You Break Down   Independence Day   Jester Fool   Jukebox On My Grave   Jumpin' A Train   Just The Jester Fool   King Of 7th Avenue   Kiss The Sun   Kristian's Song   Last At The Table   Last Call   Little Red Rose   Live In The Now   Lonely Man   Look At The Wind Blow   Looking For My Friends   Love Remains   Martyr's Lounge   Medicine   Million Chameleon March   Mr. Tee Tot   Mrs. Jones   My Gold Mine   Mystified   Nellie By   New Light On Your Halo   New Orleans   Nothing Left To Take   Once Upon A Summertime   Only Way   Paper Dolls   Paris In A Day   Photograph   Pinwheel   Raven And Scarecrow   River   River Road   Road Trip   Roll Away Bed   Rosa Parks   Rose Tattoo   Say Something   Seize The Day   Seven   Seventeen Septembers   She Was   Snow In Austin   Speed of Trees   Star Inside The Apple   Sweet Mistakes   Take all the Sky you Need   Take Me Down   Thanks To Eddie's   The Day After Everything Changed   The Hero in You   The Lights Of Vegas   The Speed of Trees   The World Ain't Slowin' Down   This Morning I Am Born Again   This Old Car   Thomas Edison   Time   Tornado Girl   Town Crier   Traffic   Wabi-Sabi   Waking Up To You   Weightless   Welcome Home to Maine   What Do I Want What Do I Need   When We Begin   Who Killed John Lennon   Woody Guthrie, Working Man   Words   World Ain't Slowin' Down   Worn Out Pretention

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