Lyrics
[Verse 1] Cave walls got my story painted in ochre
Handprints on the stone like I'm leaving my autograph
Chipped flint in my palm, made the edge razor sharp
Tracker on the ridge, I can read every animal's path
Fire crackling low, we ain't scared of the dark
Night sky full of questions that we ain't got names for
Hunted with the pack, every scrap we would part
Now the bones in the dirt tell the tale we can't ignore
[Pre-Chorus] Before the wheel before the song
Before they wrote what went wrong
We were running with the thunder
Fighting just to stay alive
[Chorus] Paleolithic dreams in the smoke of the flame
Chipping at the stone till the morning came
Two hands carving a future out the clay
We were here, we were here, way back in the day
[Verse 2] Neolithic shift, now the ground's getting tilled
Sowing seeds in the row where the wild used to roam
Mud bricks stacked high where the jackals once killed
Settled down by the river, made a permanent home
Domesticated goat, domesticated trust
Pots full of grain and a roof overhead
Wrote the first ledger in the clay and the dust
Babies born in the hut where the ancestors bled
[Pre-Chorus] From the hunt to the harvest
From the roam to the rest
Every step was a contract
With the land that we blessed
[Chorus] Paleolithic dreams in the smoke of the flame
Chipping at the stone till the morning came
Two hands carving a future out the clay
We were here, we were here, way back in the day
[Bridge] Ten thousand seasons turned to legend
Flint to copper then the iron gates
But the blood in my marrow still remembers
Running barefoot through the wild estate
[Chorus] Paleolithic dreams in the smoke of the flame
Chipping at the stone till the morning came
Two hands carving a future out the clay
We were here, we were here, way back in the day
We were here, we were here, way back in the day
[Verse 3] Okay, look, back before the calendar was keeping score
Before the tamed fire, before the settled score
I was tracking in the tall grass, low and patient
Reading broken branches, that's the oldest education
Every print in the mud was a chapter and a page
Every scar on my arm was a lesson and a wage
Learned to read the sky when the birds started dipping
Learned to read the ground when the herd started slipping
[Verse 4] Uh, hold up, let me flip it to the other side
My brother on the hunt, I'm the one who stayed inside
Fire kept, hide scraped, berry in the woven basket
Somebody had to hold it down, don't you ever ask it
Woman with the mortar, woman with the seed
Woman with the knowledge of the root and the reed
Every legend that you know started in a cave mouth
Tell me who you think was keeping all the flames lit
[Pre-Chorus] Before the crown before the throne
Before they claimed what wasn't owned
We were rolling with the river
Learning how to stay alive
[Chorus] Paleolithic dreams in the smoke of the flame
Chipping at the stone till the morning came
Two hands carving a future out the clay
We were here, we were here, way back in the day
[Post-Chorus] Way back, way back
(We were here)
Way back, way back
(We were here)
[Verse 5] Mammoth on the ridge, we ain't running from it now
Surround it with the torches, bring it down and take a bow
Every part got a purpose, nothing wasted in the end
Bone for the needle, gut for the thread again
Winter tried to kill us, we just built a better wall
Mud and stick and sinew, we survived it all
Elders in the circle telling stories to the young
Every word a weapon, every song a loaded gun
[Verse 6] Yeah, and the ice came and went like a season
We ain't asking for a reason, we just kept it breathing
Generation on generation, handing down the flame
Never wrote a single letter, still they knew my name
Now I'm standing in a museum looking at my own hand
Painted on a wall by a forgotten man
Tell me what's a legacy if not a living thing
Passing what you carry to the ones who come again
[Bridge] Ten thousand winters buried in the sediment
Flint to copper then the iron made its settlement
But the blood in my marrow still remembers
Running barefoot through the wild December
[Chorus] Paleolithic dreams in the smoke of the flame
Chipping at the stone till the morning came
Two hands carving a future out the clay
We were here, we were here, way back in the day