Drive-By Truckers - The Flying Wallendas lyrics

And they fell from the skies
With the greatest of ease
And they landed on the ground
Under tents and trapeze
And they were told that they fell
With such beauty and grace
That The Flying Wallendas would be
The name on their case

And the fine folks of Akron
Would forever be saying
That they flew through the air like
The wings of a prayer
But they all walked away amidst
The gawking and stares
And the children revisited their
Fall in nightmares but they never would stop
And they never surrendered
And they lived like they died
The Flying Wallendas
They could dance on the wire through


The fire and the storm
John Ringling had seen Karl in Cuba perform
He raised up his kids
For performance and stardom
They performed center ring at
Madison Square Garden
With a seven man pyramid folks lined
Up just to see 'em
Till they fell from the sky
At Detroit's State Fair Coliseum

And they fell to the ground
With the greatest of ease
Three didn't get up from the
Blood in the breeze
But Karl wouldn't be stopped from
His home in the skies
Till he fell from the wire in
San Juan and he died

In Sarasota as a child my
Grandparents lived next door
To the surviving Wallendas and
Their amazing wild stories
I was stun and astounded that the
Old lady who was out
Pruning her orange trees had flown
To the heavens and back