Bruce Springsteen

[fox69]

THE FUSE

THE FUSE


Down at the court house they're ringin' the flag down
Long black line of cars snakin' slow through town
Red sheets snappin' on the line
With this ring will you be mine
The fuse is burning
Shut out the lights
The fuse is burning
Come on let me do you right

Trees on fire with the first fall's frost
Long black line in front of Holy Cross
Blood moon risin' in a sky of black dust
Tell me Baby who do you trust?
The fuse is burning
Shut out the lights
The fuse is burning
Come on let me do you right

Tires on the highway hissin' that something's coming
You can feel the wires in the tree tops hummin'
Devil's on the horizon line
Your skin and I'm alive

Quiet afternoon in the empty house
On the edge of the bed you slip off your blouse
The room is burning with the noon sun
Your bittersweet taste on my tongue
The fuse is burning
Shut out the lights
The fuse is burning
Come on let me do you right

 

[fox69]

THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD

THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD


Men walkin' 'long the railroad tracks
Goin' someplace there's no goin' back
Highway patrol choppers comin' up over the ridge

Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge
Shelter line stretchin' 'round the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleepin' in their cars in the Southwest
No home no job no peace no rest

The highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light
Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad

He pulls a prayer book out of his sleeping bag
Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag
Waitin' for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last
In a cardboard box 'neath the underpass
Got a one-way ticket to the promised land
You got a hole in your belly and gun in your hand
Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock
Bathin' in the city aqueduct

The highway is alive tonight
Where it's headed everybody knows
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light
Waitin' on the ghost of Tom Joad

Now Tom said "Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom I'll be there
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me."

Well the highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light
With the ghost of old Tom Joad

 

[fox69]

THE HITTER

THE HITTER


Come to the door, Ma, and unlock the chain
I was just passin' through and got caught in the rain
There's nothin' I want, nothin' that you need say
Just let me lie down for a while and then I'll be on my way

I was no more than a kid when you put me on the Southern Queen
With the police on my back I fled to New Orleans
I fought in the dockyards and with the money that I made
And the fight was my home and any blood was my trade

Baton Rouge, Ponchatoula, and La Fayette town
Well they paid me the moon, Ma, to knock the men down
I did what I did, when it come easily
Restraint and mercy were always strangers to me

I fought champion Jack Thompson in a field full of mud
Rain poured through the tent to the canvas and mixed with our blood
In the twelfth, I slipped my tongue over my broken jaw
And I stood over him, pounded his blooded body into the floor

Well the bell rang and rang, still I kept on
'Til I felt my glove leather slip 'tween his skin and bone
And the women and the money came fast, in the days I lost track
The women red, the money green, but the numbers were black
I fought for the men in their silk suits to lay down their bets
Well I took my good share, Ma, and I had no regret

I took the fixed staid hombre with Big Diamond Don*
From high in the rafters I watched myself fall
So he raised his arms, my stomach twisted, and the sky it went black**
I stuffed my bag with their good money, and I never looked back
Understand me, and Ma, every man plays a game
If you know anyone different, then speak out his name

Well Ma, if my voice, now you don't recognize
And just open the door and look into your dark eyes
I ask of you nothin', not a kiss, not a smile
Just open the door and let me lie down for a while

Now the grey rain is fallin' and my ring fighting's done
So in the work fields and alleys, I take them who'll come
If you're a better man than me then just step to the line
And show me your money and speak out your crime
There's nothin' I want, Ma, nothin' that you need say
Just let me lie down for a while and then I'll be on my way

Well tonight in the shipyard, a man draws a circle in the dirt
Like I always do, I move to the centre and I take off my shirt
I study him for the cuts, the scars, the pain man no time can erase
I move hard to the left and I strike to the face

 

[fox69]

THE HONEYMOONERS

THE HONEYMOONERS


Two kids get married, same old thing
Folks congratulate you, church bells ring
Who's got the ring, who's gonna pay the priest
Get your mama in the paper, picture or two at least

And at the reception all the old records play
"Where you gonna live, are you gonna taker her away?"
In a corner my new nephew's showin' me his knife
You swore that you'd love her for the rest of your life

Went to kiss you at the altar we bumped heads
Honeymoon night we figured we best shake on it instead
Dressed kinda funny, laughin' we hop in bed
You can swear it on your feet, you can swear it on your head

Come mornin' my new famlily's sitting on the front porch swing
Smilin' kinda funny, nobody says a thing
My new brother-in-law's throwin' a football, he tosses me a pass
We all sit down on the front stoop, everybody happy at last

 

[fox69]

THE ICEMAN

THE ICEMAN


Sleepy town ain?t got the guts to budgeBaby this emptiness has already been judgedI wanna go out tonight, I wanna find out what I gotYou?re a strange part of me you?re a preacher?s girlAnd I don?t want no piece of this mechanical worldGot my arms open wide and my blood is running hotWe?ll take the midnight road right to the devil?s doorAnd even the white angels of eden with their flaming swordsWon?t be able to stop us from hitting town in this dirty old fordWell it don?t take no nerve when you got nothing to guardI got tombstone in my eyes and I?m running real hardMy baby was a lover and the world just blew her awayOnce they tried to steal my heart, beat it right out of my headWell baby they didn?t know that I was born deadI am the iceman, fighting for the right to liveI say better than the glory roads of heavenBetter off riding hell-bound in the dirtBetter than bright line of the freewayBetter than the shadows of your daddy?s churchBetter than the hands of waiting (? )Baby better off is the search

 

[fox69]

THE LINE

THE LINE


I got my discharge from Fort Irwin
Took a place on the San Diego county line
Felt funny bein' a civilian again
It'd been some time
My wife had died a year ago
I was still tryin' to find my way back whole
Went to work for the INS on the line
With the California border patrol
Bobby Ramirez was a ten year veteran
We became friends
His family was from Guanajuato
So the job it was different for him
He said "They risk death in the deserts and mountains
Pay all they got to the smugglers rings
We send 'em home and they come right back again
Carl hunger is a powerful thing."

Well I was good at doin' what I was to
l'd Kept my uniform pressed and clean
At night I chased their shadows
Thru the arroyos and ravines
Drug runners farmers with their families
Young women with little children by their sides
Come night we'd wait out in the canyons
And try to keep 'em from crossin' the line

Well the first time that I saw her
She was in the holdin' pen
Our eyes met and she looked away
Then she looked back again
Her hair was black as coal
Her eyes reminded me of what I'd lost
She had a young child cryin' in her arms
I asked "Senora is there anything I can do?"

There's a bar in Tijuana
Where me and Bobby drink alongside
The same people we'd sent back the day before
She said her name was Louisa
She was from Sonora and had just come north
We danced and I held her in my arms
And I knew what I would do
She said she had some family in Madera county
If she her child and younger brother could just get thru

At night they come across the levee
In the searchlight's dusty glow
We'd rush 'em in our Broncos
Force 'em back down into the river below
She climbed into my truck
She leaned toward me and we kissed
As we drove her brother's shirt slipped open
And I saw the tape across his chest

We were just about on the highway
When Bobby's jeep come up in the dust on my right
I pulled over and let my engine run
And stepped out into his lights
I felt myself movin'
My gun restin' 'neath my hand
We stood there starin' at each other
As off thru the arroyo she ran

Bobby Ramirez he never said nothin'
6 months later I left the line
I drifted to the central valley
And took what work I could find
At night I searched the local bars
And the migrant towns
Lookin' for my Louisa
With the black hair fallin' down

 

[fox69]

THE LITTLE THINGS

THE LITTLE THINGS


The way she kisses so tenderly
The way she gives her love to me
I been felt by the graces and angels up above
The little things my baby does
The little things my baby does
The little things my baby does
That make me love her

The way she sighs when I hold her tight
Good times and bad will be alright
Faces on the street they push hard and they shove
Disappear with the little things my baby does
The little things my baby does
The little things my baby does
I know I love her

The soft summer breeze fills her every sigh
Her eyes are bluer than the summer sky

I been felt by the graces and angels up above
The little things my baby does
The little things my baby does
The little things my baby does
That make me love her

And when the night closes in
I'm drifting and I can't find a friend
On the wings of the angels I'm saved by her love
The little things my baby does
The little things my baby does
The little things my baby does
That make me love her

The little things my baby does
The little things my baby does
The little things my baby does
The little things my baby does
[Fades Out]

 

[fox69]

THE LONG GOODBYE

THE LONG GOODBYE


My soul went walkin? but I stayed here
Feel like I been workin? for a thousand years
Chippin? away at this chain of my own lies
Climbin? a wall a hundred miles high
Well I woke up this morning on the other side
Yeah yeah this is the long goodbye
Hey yeah this is the long goodbye

Same old faces it?s the same old town
What once was laughs is draggin? me now
Waitin? on rain hangin? on for love
Words of forgiveness from some God above
Ain?t no words of mercy comin? from on high
Oh no just a long goodbye
Yeah yeah just one long goodbye

Well I went to leave twenty years ago
Since then I guess I been packin? kinda slow
Sure did like that admirin? touch
Guess I liked it a little too much

The moon is high and here I am
Sittin? here with this hammer in hand
One more drink oughta ease the pain
Starin? at that last link in the chain
Well let?s raise our glass and let the hammer fly
Hey yeah this is the long goodbye
Hey yeah this is the long goodbye
Kiss me baby and we?re gonna fly
Hey yeah this is the long goodbye
Yeah yeah this is the long goodbye
Hey yeah this is the long goodbye
Kiss me baby ?cause we?re gonna ride
Yeah yeah this is the long goodbye

 

[fox69]

THE NEW TIMER

THE NEW TIMER


He rode the rails since the Great Depression
Fifty years out on the skids
He said 'You don't cross nobody
You'll be all right out here kid.'
Left my family in Pennsylvania
Searchin' for work I hit the road
I met Frank in East Texas
In a freight yard blown thru with snow

From New Mexico to Colorado
California to the sea
Frank he showed me the ropes sir
Just till I could get back on my feet

I hoed sugar beets outside of Firebaugh
I picked the peaches from the Marysville trees
They bunked us in a barn just like animals
Me and a hundred others just like me

We split up come the springtime
I never seen Frank again
'Cept one rainy night he blew by me on a grainer
Shouted my name and disappeared in the rain and wind

They found him shot dead outside of Stockton
His body lyin' on a muddy hill
Nothin' taken nothin' stolen
Somebody killin' just to kill

Late that summer was rollin' thru the plains of Texas
A vision passed before my eyes
A small house sittin' trackside
With the glow of the savior's beautiful light

A woman stood cookin' in the kitchen
Kid sat at a table with his old man
Now I wonder does my son miss me
Does he wonder where I am

Tonight I pick my campsite carefully
Outside the Sacramento yard
Gather some wood and light a fire
In the early winter dark

Wind whistling cold I pull my coat around me
Heat some coffee and stare out into the black night
I lie awake I lie awake sir
With my machete by my side

My Jesus your gracious love and mercy
Tonight I'm sorry could not fill my heart
Like one good rifle
And the name of who I ought to kill

 

[fox69]

THE PRICE YOU PAY

THE PRICE YOU PAY


You make up your mind, you choose the chance you take
You ride to where the highway ends and the desert breaks
Out on to an open road you ride until the day
You learn to sleep at night with the price you pay
Now with their hands held high, they reached out for the open skies
And in one last breath they built the roads they'd ride to their death
Driving on through the night, unable to break away
From the restless pull of the price you pay
(Chorus)
Oh, the price you pay, oh, the price youpay
Now you can't walk away from the price you pay

Now they'd come so far and they'd waited so long
Just to end up caught in a dream where everything goes wrong
Where the dark of night holds back the light of day
And you've gotta stand and fight for the price you pay

(Chorus)

Little girl down on the strand
With that pretty little baby in your hands
Do you remember the story of the promised land
How he crossed the desert sands
And could not enter the chosen land
On the banks of the river he stayed
To face the price you pay
So let the games start, you better run you little wild heart
You can run through all the nights and all the days
But just across the county line,
a stranger passing through put up a sign
That counts the men fallen away to the price you pay
And girl before the end of the day,
I'm gonna tear it down and throw it away