THE HOLLOW KING [Verse I] I answered an ad in Kentucky one fall A handwritten number, nothing else at all No town on the map, no house on the road Just mountains that swallowed the truck and its load The ridges grew crooked The daylight grew thin The hollow like a jaw That was closing me in I thought I'd been summoned To something untold... To something ancient in the hills!! [Verse II] At the end of the road stood a kingdom of teeth Two hundred dogs moving like shadows beneath The fences were borders The tree line was law And every pack watched me with hunger and awe Their eyes in the darkness Their voices at night A chorus of creatures I dare not show fright... [Chorus] Hail the Hollow King Lord of the barking stars Keeper of the restless packs And secret mountain scars Bound to a throne of mud Far from the world of men If he ever leaves The war begins again [Verse III] His name was Randy Or so I was told Though names lose meaning In kingdoms this old The dogs moved around him Like planets around suns A hundred small nations Obeying only one He slept when he could He drank when he must With Keystone communion And Appalachian rust While modem lights flickered Like signals from space The last wire to mankind [Chorus] Hail the Hollow King Lord of the barking stars Keeper of the restless packs And secret mountain scars Bound to a throne of despair Far from the world of men If he ever leaves The war begins again [Verse iv] Every three weeks I came with Offerings. 21 days of beer for man and flesh for beasts Tribute carried from the outer world. Down the old mountain road to a kingdom of tears The jars were full of human hope. The truck was full of flesh and bone And somewhere beyond the mountains Civilization forgot his home. But the dogs remembered. The dogs always remembered. [Breakdown] Two hundred throats Baying at a moon That never seemed entirely ours Four hundred eyes Reflecting something Old And patient And waiting [Final Chorus] Hail the Hollow King Master of the feral tide The packs sleep uneasy At his side And when the mountains crack And the old gods stir again The dogs will know his voice And follow him Amen [Fast Outro] Sometimes in dreams that follow... I still hear them Two hundred hounds Calling from the hollow
