Monster Ballads

Josh Ritter · The Animal Years [2006]

Radio waves are coming miles and miles

Bringing only empty boats

Whatever feeling they had when they sailed

Somehow slipped out between the notes



Out on the desert now and feeling lost

The bonnet wears a wire albatross

Monster ballads and the stations of the cross

Sighing just a little bit

Sighing just a little bit



And I was thinking 'bout what Katy done

Thinking 'bout what Katy did

The fairest daughter of the Pharaoh's son

Dressed in gold 'neath pyramids



Out on the desert now and feeling lost

The bonnet wears a wire albatross

Monster ballads and the stations of the cross

Sighing just a little bit

Sighing just a little bit



Ones and zeroes bleeding mesa noise

And when you're empty there's so much space for them

You turn it off but then a still small voice

Comes in blazing from some vast horizon



And I was thinking 'bout my river days

I was thinking 'bout me and Jim

Passing Cairo on a getaway

With every steamboat like a hymn



Out on the desert now I'm feeling lost

The bonnet wears a wire albatross

Monster ballads and the stations of the cross

Sighing just a little bit

Smiling just a little bit