Go To Page Two of Three Minute Record!!

Any true Bruce Sprinsteen fan will tell you that the magic of his music is in the lyrics. What can be said about them? Not much really, though one could also write a book about them. The magic is in the words. He is one of the few singers or lyricists whose work follows a consistent theme throughout his life. He can best be described as the "voice" of everyman. He wakes up, goes to work, does his job, falls in love, has problems, experiences happiness and sadness, comes home, sometimes goes "racin' in the streets", and goes to bed. He writes about it and sings about it. In doing so, he connects with millions. It's not hard to understand how we can learn "more from a three minute record, than we ever learned in school."..... ( Click on song titles for full lyrics to listed songs )

"Racing In the Street"

" I met her on the strip three years ago
In a Camaro with this dude from L.A.
I blew that Camaro off my back
And drove that little girl away
But now there's wrinkles around my baby's eyes
And she cries herself to sleep at night
When I come home the house is dark
She sighs "Baby did you make it all right"
She sits on the porch of her daddy's house
But all her pretty dreams are torn
She stares off alone into the night
With the eyes of one who hates for just being born
For all the shut down strangers and hot rod angels
Rumbling through this promised land
Tonight my baby and me
We're gonna ride to the sea
And wash these sins off our hands "

Independence Day

" Now the rooms are all empty down at Frankie's joint
And the highway she's deserted down to Breaker's Point
There's a lot of people leaving town now
Leaving their friends, their homes
At night they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone

Well Papa go to bed now it's getting late
Nothing we can say can change anything now
Because there's just different people coming down here now
and they see things in different ways
And soon everything we've known will just be swept away

So say goodbye it's Independence Day
Papa now I know the things you wanted that you could not say
But won't you just say goodbye it's Independence Day
I swear I never meant to take those things away "

Backstreets

" Laying here in the dark
You're like an angel on my chest
Just another tramp of hearts
Crying tears of faithlessness
Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see
Trying to learn how to walk like heroes
We thought we had to be
And after all this time
To find we're just like all the rest
Stranded in the park and forced to confess
To hiding on the backstreets,
Hiding on the backstreets
We swore forever friends
On the backstreets until the end
Hiding on the backstreets,
Hiding on the backstreets "

Blood Brothers

" Now the hardness of this world
Slowly grinds your dreams away
Makin' a fool's joke
Out of the promises we make
And what once seemed black and white
Turns to so many shades of gray
We lose ourselves in work to do and bills to pay
And it's a ride, ride, ride,
And there ain't much cover
With no one runnin' by your side my blood brother

On through the houses of the dead
Past those fallen in their tracks
Always movin' ahead and never lookin' back
Now I don't know how I feel,
I don't know how I feel tonight
If I've fallen 'neath the wheel,
If I've lost or I've gained sight
I don't even know why,
I don't know why I made this call
Or if any of this matters anymore after all "

Born to Run

" Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend
I wanna guard your dreams and visions
Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims
And strap your hands across my engines
Together we could break this trap
We'll run till we drop, baby we'll never go back
Will you walk with me out on the wire
`Cause baby I'm just a scared and lonely rider
But I gotta find out how it feels
I want to know if love is wild
Girl I want to know if love is real "

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 it ain't free
And I know you're lonely
For words that I ain't spoken
But 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
In 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
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind,
So Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win "

Ain't Got You

" I got a pound of caviar sitting home on ice
I got a fancy foreign car that rides like paradise
I got a hundred pretty women knockin' down my door
And folks wanna kiss me I ain't even seen before
I been around the world and all across the seven seas
Been paid a king's ransom for doin' what comes naturally
But I'm still the biggest fool honey this world ever knew
'Cause the only thing I ain't got baby I ain't got you "

Adam Raised A Cain

" In the Bible Cain slew Abel
And East of Eden he was cast
You're born into this life paying
For the sins of somebody else's past
Daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain
Now he walks these empty rooms
Looking for something to blame
You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames
Adam raised a Cain
Lost but not forgotten,
From the dark heart of a dream
Adam raised a Cain "

Darlington County

" 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 two hundred dollars
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 Centers
For a kiss and a smile I'll give mine all to you "

Human Touch

" You and me we were the pretenders
We let it all slip away
In the end what you don't surrender
Well the world just strips away

Girl, ain't no kindness in the face of strangers
Ain't gonna find no miracles here
Well you can wait on your blesses my darlin'
But I got a deal for you right here

I ain't lookin' for praise or pity
I ain't comin' 'round searchin' for a crutch
I just want someone to talk to
And a little of that Human Touch
Just a little of that Human Touch "

Highway Patrolman

" It was out at the crossroads,
Down round Willow bank
Seen a Buick with Ohio plates
Behind the wheel was Frank
Well I chased him through them county roads
Till a sign said Canadian border five miles from here
I pulled over the side of the highway
And watched his taillights disappear "

Incident on 57th Street

" Well like a cool Romeo he made his moves,
Oh she looked so fine
Like a late Juliet she knew he'd never be true
But then she really didn't mind
Upstairs a band was playin',
The singer was singin' something about goin' home
She whispered, "Spanish Johnny, you can leave me tonight
But just don't leave me alone "

Local Hero

" I was driving through my hometown
I was just kinda killin' time
When I seen a face staring out of a black velvet painting
From the window of the five and dime
I couldn't quite recall the name
But the pose looked familiar to me
So I asked the salesgirl "Who was that man
Between the doberman and Bruce Lee?"
She said "Just a local hero"
"Local hero" she said with a smile
"Yeah a local hero he used to live here for a while "

Jungleland

" Beneath the city two hearts beat
Soul engines running through a night so tender
In a bedroom locked
In whispers of soft refusal and then surrender
In the tunnels uptown
The Rat's own dream guns him down
As shots echo down them hallways in the night
No one watches when the ambulance pulls away
Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light

Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz
Between flesh and what's fantasy
And the poets down here
Don't write nothing at all,
They just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night
They reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand
But they wind up wounded,
Not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland "

Reason to Believe

" Seen a man standin' over a dead dog
Lyin' by the highway in a ditch
He's lookin' down kinda puzzled
Pokin' that dog with a stick
Got his car door flung open
He's standin' out on highway 31
Like if he stood there long enough
That dog'd get up and run
Struck me kinda funny
Seem kinda funny sir to me
Still at the end of every hard earned day
People find some reason to believe "

Bobby Jean

" Now we went walkin' in the rain
Talkin' about the pain
From the world we hid
Now there ain't nobody nowhere 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 "

Doll House

" Everything's as you dreamed it would be
But there's something wrong that you can't see
Room by room you keep looking for some little flaw
A crack somewhere in your dollhouse wall
Something, girl, that will explain away
The hurt you feel, darling, and the price you pay "

Meeting Across the River

" Hey, Eddie, can you lend me a few bucks
And tonight can you get us a ride
Gotta make it through the tunnel
Got a meeting with a man on the other side
Hey Eddie, this guy, he's the real thing
So if you want to come along
You gotta promise you won't say anything
`Cause this guy don't dance
And the word's been passed this is our last chance "

My Father's House

" I awoke and I imagined
The hard things that pulled us apart
Will never again, sir,
Tear us from each other's hearts
I got dressed, and to that house I did ride
From out on the road,
I could see its windows shining in light
I walked up the steps and stood on the porch
A woman I didn't recognize
Came and spoke to me through a chained door
I told her my story, and who I'd come for
She said 'I'm sorry, son,
But no one by that name lives here anymore'
My father's house shines hard and bright
It stands like a beacon
Calling me in the night
Calling and calling, so cold and alone
Shining `cross this dark highway
Where our sins lie unatoned "

She's the One

That Thunder in your heart
At night when you're kneeling in the dark
It says you're never gonna leave her
But there's this angel in her eyes
That tells such desperate lies
And all you want to do is believe her
And tonight you'll try just one more time
To leave it all behind and to break on through
Oh she can take you, but if she wants to break you
She's gonna find out that ain't so easy to do
And no matter where you sleep tonight or how far you run
Oh-o she's the one, she's the one

Go To Page Two of Three Minute Record!!