A screen door slams, Mary's dress sways
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey, that's me, and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside, darling
You know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty but, hey, you're alright
Oh, and that's alright with me
You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero, that's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey, what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well, the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back, heaven's waiting down on the tracks
Oh-oh, come take my hand
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh-oh, Thunder Road
Oh, Thunder Road, oh, Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey, I know it's late, we can make it if we run
Oh-oh, Thunder Road
Sit tight, take hold
Thunder Road
Well, I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back
If you're ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride ain't free
And I know you're lonely for words that I ain't spoken
Tonight we'll be free, all the promises'll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
On the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
When you get to the porch
They're gone on the wind
So Mary, climb in
It's a town full of losers
I'm pulling out of here to win
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey, that's me, and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside, darling
You know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty but, hey, you're alright
Oh, and that's alright with me
You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero, that's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey, what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well, the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back, heaven's waiting down on the tracks
Oh-oh, come take my hand
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh-oh, Thunder Road
Oh, Thunder Road, oh, Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey, I know it's late, we can make it if we run
Oh-oh, Thunder Road
Sit tight, take hold
Thunder Road
Well, I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back
If you're ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride ain't free
And I know you're lonely for words that I ain't spoken
Tonight we'll be free, all the promises'll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
On the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
When you get to the porch
They're gone on the wind
So Mary, climb in
It's a town full of losers
I'm pulling out of here to win
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Bruce Springsteen brought honesty to Rock and Roll. Dropping pretenses of sex and drugs and death and despair, he went ahead with his song.
Even as a 21 year old college student, I can only sense the underlying value in this song. I can see a 40 year old divorcee hearing it one night on the radio and picking up his life. I can see a mother of 3 hearing it and realizing she is still beautiful.
It is a sad fact that most of popular literature and music is focused on youth -- either the wildness and freedom of being in it, or the confusion and sadness at losing it. And while Springsteen touches on it here, there is no doubt that the song is looking forward. He's trying to treat life as and up-and-down ride, not as some bell curve that we're all gonna be on the downside of someday. The hope and maturity of it is untouched by any other song in Rock history.
Reckon you've hit the nail on the head there Ballz, good on Bruce for rejecting the youth-obsession of pop music.
I don't think that Bruce absolutely rejected the emphasis on youth here, but he did present a vision of youth that is much more nuanced and reflective of how people actually live their lives. When I was about 21, I got the idea in my head that I needed to move to Nashville and make a name for myself. Not musically, just live in a large city in the South. That's kind of what happens when you grow up in a small town and you feel as if you've outgrown it. That was a mistake, of course - a costly one - but one that represents the folly of youth.
ballz - very nice. that was 12/13 years ago that you sounded like a 40 year old. Now you're 33 or 34, it'd be interesting to hear you revisit this. You are dead on ballz accurate and I do not mean to trivialize your beautiful analysis in any way, but I will add this obvious truth...<br /> <br /> Springsteen writes songs that makes women's panties fall right off.