The Ballad of Chris McCandless

He was out on the highway smiling
A mystic in torn blue jeans
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"

And was he chasing fool's gold
Or a holy man walking
A dirt road 'til the end?
When 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"

And was he chasing fool's gold
Or a holy man walking
A dirt road 'til the end?
When 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?
Wherever you are?

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

Was he chasing fool's gold
Or a holy man walking a dirt road
'Til the end?
When 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 a dream
Dream