One time I shook hands with a pirate,
He gave me a map to all his gold.
After a lifetime I finally found it,
By then I was too old to bring it home.
It was a long way down.

On a snowy night in late December,
I set out to find some mistletoe.
She had promised me all kinds of kisses;
None of them were worth the bones I broke.
It was a long way down.

Long way to fall to have nobody catch ya,
Long way to call to have nobody answer,
Long walk home if you don't know the mountain roads.

One night while playing in a graveyard,
Somebody's hand reached up and grabbed my leg.
It was my dearly departed grandpa,
He said, "I bet you thought that I was dead,
I was just a long way down."

And on the night before the day that I got married,
An old man said "Hey listen to me son.
Make sure you wanna hold that girl forever,
'Cause once you say I do you gotta do it 'til it's done.
It's a long way down."

Long way to fall to have nobody catch ya,
Long way to call to have nobody answer,
Long walk home if you don't know the mountain roads.

It's a long fall down to Earth from Heaven,
A long walk back to there from Hell,
And sometimes the difference between them is hard to tell.

One time I met a tree out in a forest,
I said "Tree I wanna be as big as you."
He said "Boy I wish you never had've found me.
'Cause that means that lumberjack can find me too,
And it's a long way down."