About the song
A story for this song hasn’t been added yet.
Words from the artist’s archive
THIN AIR lyrics
Artist-supplied lyric sheet, matched by title. The sheet may differ from this released performance. Production notes and alternate promotional cuts are omitted.
Read the lyric sheet
Verse 1
Centrifuge at four G's, vision tunneling out NASA badge says VISITOR like I'm passing through Eighteen weeks they taught me to breathe through the panic Sleep test, blood test, hundred-page release Life insurance kicks in if the second stage don't seal Instructor said don't think about the wife Think about the window when you're climbing through the steel
Pre-chorus
Twenty stories tall and they're strapping me inside Forty thousand pounds of fuel under my spine Counting down to the part I cannot rehearse Counting down to the part where I disappear
Chorus
Floating in thin air, floating in thin air Twenty-eight million for a window and a prayer Left my name in the parking lot, told my daughter I'd be there Floating in thin air, floating in thin air
Post-chorus
Floating, floating, gone Floating, floating, gone
Verse 2
Three a.m. in crew quarters, divorce papers in the locker Read them twice, folded them, then read them once again Brought a photograph but tore the wife out of the picture Just my daughter at her birthday, eight candles in the wind They keep asking what it's for, like I owe somebody science Like I'm climbing for the species, not just for the silence Truth is I just needed somewhere I could go Where my phone don't work and nobody knows my name below
Pre-chorus
Twenty stories tall and they're strapping me inside Forty thousand pounds of fuel under my spine Counting down to the part I cannot rehearse Counting down to the part where I disappear
Chorus
Floating in thin air, floating in thin air Twenty-eight million for a window and a prayer Left my name in the parking lot, told my daughter I'd be there Floating in thin air, floating in thin air
Post-chorus
Floating, floating, gone Floating, floating, gone
Verse 3
T-minus fourteen, my pulse the only metronome T-minus ten, the gantry pulls back from the hull T-minus six, ignition, I can feel it in my teeth T-minus three, the world I knew gets very very small T-minus one, the sky tears open like a paper sleeve T-minus zero, and the ground decides to let me leave
Verse 4
Mach one and the windows rattle, Florida disappears Cocoa Beach, the causeway, eighteen years of fear G-force has me pinned, I'm laughing through the tears The man who paid the ticket isn't anywhere near here Atlantic shrinks to a postcard, clouds dissolve to thread Everything I was running from is dying in my head
Bridge
I told her this was science Truth is I needed somewhere Nobody could call me by my old name My daughter drew a rocket on a homework sheet I taped it inside the helmet So when I look at the dark I see her crayon stars
Verse 5
Liftoff plus eight minutes, main engine cut-off Earth's a marble in the porthole, blue and lonely and small No engines, no birds, no voicemail in my ears Just the hum of the systems and the weight of all the years She thinks I'm coming back with stories of the void She thinks the man returning is the man she said goodbye But the man she said goodbye to didn't make it past the launch And the one floating up here isn't sure he wants to try
Chorus
Floating in thin air, floating in thin air Twenty-eight million for a window and a prayer Crayon stars inside the visor, told my daughter I'd be there Floating in thin air, floating in thin air
Post-chorus
Floating, floating, gone Floating, floating, gone Floating in thin air
Outro
Ground control, this is forty-seven Charlie Nominal trajectory
Inside the recording
Centrifuge at four G's, vision tunneling out NASA badge says VISITOR like I'm passing through
Twenty stories tall and they're strapping me inside Forty thousand pounds of fuel under my spine
Ground control, this is forty-seven Charlie Nominal trajectory
Excerpts from artist-supplied lyric files matched by title. Lyric sheets may differ from the released performance.