(Verse 1) The engine’s idling slowly, heat rising from the hood The desert breathes beneath my wheels The night swallows the neon, like I knew it would A silver moon on broken steel I’m just a shadow on the map, folded on the dash The highway bends, then disappears The headlights cut the haze, but never find a place to crash Into the silence of forgotten years (Pre-Chorus) And the radio is crackling, a voice through all the static No sign to follow, no place to hide Promising salvation, but the signal’s too erratic Only the echoes riding beside The mirage of a refuge, a familiar, fleeting call The dashboard glows like fading fire Before the heavy silence comes to drown it all The night still feeds my last desire (Chorus) Oh, my heart is in league with the two-lane I’m chasing the fading line The black ribbon unspooling, calling out my name Where the sky and the earth collide Every mile a heartbeat, every curve a kind of pain Every shadow leaves a trace behind My heart is in league with the two-lane Still I ride into the fading line (Verse 2) There’s a light out in the valley, a cold and distant gleam The telephone poles drift away Could be a boomtown rising, or just the ghost of a dream Like ghosts that never meant to stay I traded all our whispers for a tank of gasoline The engine sings a low refrain And the rumble of the V8 is the only thing that’s clean A lonely hymn across the plain (Pre-Chorus) The odometer’s turning, hypnotic and absurd Every mile erases time Another chapter fading, another final word Leaving only one fading line A phantom service station, where I could have turned aside No destination left to find But the open road was calling, nowhere left to hide Only the night and the fading line (Chorus) Oh, my heart is in league with the two-lane I’m chasing the fading line The black ribbon unspooling, calling out my name Where the sky and the earth collide Every mile a heartbeat, every curve a kind of pain Every memory finds its place in time My heart is in league with the two-lane Still I ride into the fading line (Guitar Solo - Airy, with a distant crying slide, bass and synth pads swelling) (Bridge - The music gets even more spacious, drums pounding slow) Under a starless sky… where the asphalt starts to fray… If tomorrow waits beyond the dawn… I’m searching for a signal… a frequency to say… It never tells me where it’s gone… The one-way journey outward… is a strange and hollow haven… Maybe freedom has no name… Just the sound of the road… and the echo of my breath… Maybe every road’s the same… (Final Chorus, sung with more restrained intensity) Oh, my heart is in league… (Nothing but the sound of the road) I’m chasing the fading line… My heart is in league with the two-lane! (The echo of my breath) Every dream I’ve left behind… And as long as the engine’s burning… I’ll keep following the sun… Still I ride… Still alive… I’ll follow this refrain… Into the fading line… (Outro) The lines are fading… (whispered) The lines are fading… Under the hood, the fire sleeps. The night, the desert, the promise it keeps. The highway bends beyond the light. A silver thread dissolving into night. (The bass repeats its line, the guitar throws a few notes into distant feedback. Slow fade.)
