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