Everett Ruess

I was born Everett Ruess

I been dead for sixty years

I was just a young boy in my twenties

The day I disappeared.

Into the Grand Escalante Badlands

Near the Utah and Arizona line

And they never found my body, boys

Or understood my mind.

I grew up in California

And I loved my family and my home

But I ran away to the High Sierra

Where I could live free and alone.

And folks said "He's just another wild kid

And he'll grow out of it in time,"

But they never found my body, boys

Or understood my mind.

I broke broncos with the cowboys

I sang healing songs with the Navajo

I did the snake dance with the Hopi

And I drew pictures everywhere I go.

Then I swapped all my drawings for provisions

To get what I needed to get by

And they never found my body, boys

Or understood my mind.

Well I hate your crowded cities

With your sad and hopeless mobs

And I hate your grand cathedrals

Where you try to trap God.

'Cause I know God is here in the canyons

With the rattlesnakes and the pinon pines

And they never found my body, boys

Or understood my mind.

They say I was killed by a drifter

Or I froze to death in the snow

Maybe mauled by a wildcat

Or I'm livin' down in Mexico.

But my end, it doesn't really matter

All that counts is how you live your life

And they never found my body, boys

Or understood my mind.

You give your dreams away as you get older

Oh, but I never gave up mine

And they'll never find my body, boys

Or understand my mind.