"Born in the USA" - Bruce Springsteen (1984)

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up

Chorus:
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

Got in a little hometown jam so they put a
Rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land 
To go and kill the yellow man

Chorus

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says, "Son if it was up to me."
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said, "Son, don't you understand now."
Had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go

Chorus

I'm a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A.

The times are tough now
Just getting tougher
This old world is rough
It's just getting rougher
Cover me
Come on baby, cover me
Well I'm looking for a lover who will
Come on in and cover me

Promise me baby you won't let them find us
Hold me in your arms
Let's let our love blind us
Cover me
Shut the door and cover me
Well I'm looking for a lover who will
Come on in and cover me

Outside's the rain, the driving snow
I can hear the wild wind blowing
Turn out the light
Bolt the door
I ain't going out there no more
This whole world is out there just trying to score
I've seen enough I don't want to see any more
Cover me
Come on and cover me
I'm looking for a lover who will come on in and cover me
Looking for a lover who will come on in and cover me

Driving in to Darlington County
Me and Wayne on the Fourth of July
Driving in to Darlington County
Looking for some work on the county line
We drove down from New York City
Where the girls are pretty but they just
Want to know your name
Driving in to Darlington City
Got a union connection with an uncle of Wayne's
We drove eight hundred miles without seeing a cop
We got rock and roll music blasting off the t-top singing

Chorus:
Sha la la
Sha la la la
Sha la la la la la la

Hey little girl standing on the corner
Today's your lucky day for sure all right
Me and my buddy we're from New York City
We got $200, we want to rock all night
Girl, you're looking at two big spenders
Why the world don't know what me and Wayne might do
Our pa's each own one of the World Trade Centres
For a kiss and a smile I'll give mine all to you
Come on baby take a seat on my fender
It's a long night and tell me what else were you gonna do
Just me and you, we could

Chorus

Little girl sitting in the window
Ain't seen my buddy in seven days
County man tells me the same thing
He don't work and he don't get paid
Little girl you're so young and pretty
Walk with me and you can have your way
And we'll leave this Darlington City for a
Ride down that Dixie Highway
Driving out of Darlington County
My eyes seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
Driving out of Darlington County
Seen Wayne handcuffed to the bumper of a state trooper's Ford
Chorus

Friday night's pay night guys fresh out of work
Talking about the weekend, scrubbing off the dirt
Some heading home to their families,
Some looking to get hurt
Some going down to Stovell wearing trouble on their shirts

I work for the county on 95
All day I hold a red flag and watch the traffic pass me by
In my head I keep a picture of a pretty little miss
Someday Mister 'm gonna lead a better life than this

Chorus:
Working on the highway laying down the blacktop
Working on the highway all day long I don't stop
Working on the highway blasting through the bedrock
Working on the highway
Working on the highway

I met her at a dance down at the union hall
She was standing with her brothers, back up against the wall
Sometimes we'd go walking down the union tracks
One day I looked straight at her and she looked straight back

Chorus

I saved up my money and I put it all away
I went to see her daddy but we didn't have much to say
"Son, can't you see that she's just a little
Girl she don't know nothing about this cruel, cruel world."

We lit out down to Florida, we got along all right
One day her brothers came and got her
And they took me in a black and white
The prosecutor kept the promise that he made on that day
And the judge got mad and he put me straight away
I wake up every morning to the work bell clang
Me and the warden go swinging on the
Charlotte County road gang

Chorus

I had a job, I had a girl
I had something going mister in this world
I got laid off down at the lumber yard
Our love went bad, times got hard
Now I work down at the carwash, where all it ever does is rain
Don't you feel like you're a rider on a downbound train

She just said, "Joe I gotta go, we had it
Once we ain't got it anymore."
She packed her bags left me behind
she bought a ticket on the Central Line
Nights as I sleep, I hear that whistle whining
I feel her kiss in the misty rain
And I feel like I'm a rider on a downbound train

Last night I heard your voice
You were crying, crying
You were so alone
You said your love had never died
You were waiting for me at home
Put on my jacket, I ran through the woods
I ran till I thought my chest would explode
There in the clearing, beyond the highway,
In the moonlight, our wedding house shone
I rushed through the yard
I burst through the front door
My head pounding hard

Up the stairs I climbed, the room was dark, our bed was empty
Then I heard that long whistle whine and
I dropped to my knees, hung my head and cried
Now I swing a sledge hammer on a
Railroad gang knocking down them cross ties; working in the rain
Now don't it feel like you're a rider on a downbound train.

Hey little girl is your daddy home
Did he go away and leave you all alone
I got a bad desire
I'm on fire

Tell me now baby is he good to you
Can do to you the things that I do
I can take you higher
I'm on fire

Sometimes it's like, someone took a knife
Baby edgy and dull and cut a six-inch
Valley through the middle of my soul
At night I wake up with the sheets
Soaking wet and a freight train running
Through the middle of my head
Only you can cool my desire
I'm on fire

We busted out of class had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a three minute
Record than we ever learned in school
Tonight I hear the neighbourhood drummer sound
I can feel my heart begin to pound
You say you're tired and you just want
To close your eyes and follow your dreams down

Chorus:
We made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter's night with
A vow to defend, no retreat no surrender

Now young faces grow sad and old
And hearts of fire grow cold, we swore blood
Brothers against the wind, I'm ready to
Grow young again and hear your sister's
Voice calling us home across the open yards
Well maybe we could cut someplace of
Our own with these drums and these guitars

Chorus

Blood brothers in the stormy night with a
Vow to defend no retreat no surrender

Now on the street tonight the lights grow
Dim the walls of my room are closing in
There's a war outside still raging
You say it ain't ours anymore to win
I want to sleep beneath the peaceful skies in
My lover's bed wit a wide open country
In my eyes and these romantic dreams in my head

Chorus

Well I came by your house the other day
Your mother said you went away
She said there was nothing that I could have done
There was nothing nobody could say
Me and you we've known each other ever since we were sixteen
I wished I would have known
I wished I could have called you
Just to say goodbye Bobby Jean

Now you hung with me when all the
Others turned away, turned up their nose
We liked the same music, we liked the same bands,
We liked the same clothes
We told each other that we were the wildest
The wildest things we'd ever seen
Now I wished you would have told me
I wished I could have talked to you
Just to say goodbye Bobby Jean

Now we went walking in the rain talking
About the pain that from the world we hid
Now there ain't nobody, nowhere's nohow
Gonna ever understand me the way you did
Maybe you'll be out there on that road
somewhere, in some bus or train
Traveling along, in some motel room
There'll be a radio playing and you'll hear me sing this song
Well, if you do, you'll know I'm thinking
Of you and all the miles in between and
I'm just calling one last time
Not to change your mind, but just to say I miss you baby,
Good luck, goodbye Bobby Jean

We sit in the car outside your home
I can feel the heat coming 'round
I go to put my arm around you and you
Give me a look like I'm way out of bounds,
You let out one of your bored sighs
Well, lately when I look into your eyes
I'm goin' down

We get dressed up and we go out baby for the night
We come home early burning, burning,
Burning in some fire fight
I'm sick and tired of your setting me up,
Setting me up just to knock-a, knock-a
Knock-a me down

I pull you close but when w kiss I can feel a doubt
I remember back when we started, my
Kisses used to turn you inside out
I used to drive you to work in the morning
Friday night I'd drive you all around
You used to love to drive me wild
But lately girl you get your kicks from must driving me down

I had a friend was a big baseball player
Back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking and he was walking out
We went back inside sat down, had a few drinks
But all he kept talking about was

Chorus:
Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

There's a girl that lives up the block
Back in school she could turn all the boys' heads
Sometimes on Friday, I'll stop by and have a few drinks
After she put her kids to bed
Her and her husband Bobby well they split up
I guess it's two years gone by now
We just sit around talking about the old times,
She says when she feels like crying
She starts laughing thinking about

Chorus

Think I'm going down to the well tonight
And I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
But I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
A little of the glory of,
But time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but
Boring stories of glory days

Chorus

I get up in the evening
And I ain't got nothing to say
I come home in the morning
I go to bed feeling the same way
I ain't nothing but tired
Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself
Hey there baby I could use just a little help

Chorus:
You can't start a fire
You can't start a fire without a spark
This gun's for hire
Even if we're just dancing in the dark

Message keeps getting clearer
Radio's on and I'm moving 'round the place
I check my looks in the mirror
I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face
Man, I ain't getting nowhere just living in a dump like this
There's something happening somewhere
Baby I just know that there is

Chorus

You sit around getting older
There's a joke here somewhere and it's on me
I'll shake this world off my shoulders
Come on baby the laugh's on me

Stay on the streets of this town
And they'll be carving you up all night
They say you gotta stay hungry
Hey baby I'm just about starving tonight
I'm dying for some action
I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book
I need a love reaction
Come on now baby gimme just one look

Chorus

You can't start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart
This gun's for hire

I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop
To pick up a paper for my old man
I'd sit on his lap in that big old Buick and
Steer as we drove through town
He'd tousle my hair and say son take a
good look around this is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown

In '65 tension was running high, at my high school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white
There was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night,
In the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed, in a shotgun blast
Troubled times had come, to my hometown
My hometown
My hometown
My hometown

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody
Wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys
And they ain't coming back to your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown

Last night me and Kate we laid in bed talking about getting out
Packing up our bags and maybe heading south
I'm 35, we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up, behind the wheel
And said son take a good look around,
This is your hometown