Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A. (1984)

Born in the U.S.A.

Critical meets commercial success. Springsteen’s seventh studio album placed him firmly on the pop charts with seven Top Ten singles and turned him into a global superstar. The title track is self-described as one of his best songs. Reasonably regarded as the turning-point album in Bruce’s career.

  • Released:
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Producers: Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt
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  • 1 Born in the U.S.A.

    Lyrics

    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

    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

    Born in the U.S.A.
    I was 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.

    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"

    I 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

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

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  • 2 Cover Me

    Lyrics

    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

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  • 3 Darlington County

    Lyrics

    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

    Sha la la la la la 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 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
    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

    Sha la la...

    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

    Sha la la...

    Also Appears On

  • 4 Working on the Highway

    Lyrics

    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 out 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 I'm gonna lead a better life than this

    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

    Working on the highway...

    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

    Working on the highway...

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  • 5 Downbound Train

    Lyrics

    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 any more"
    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

  • 6 I'm On Fire

    Lyrics

    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 he 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

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  • 7 No Surrender

    Lyrics

    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 neighborhood 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

    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

    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 peaceful skies in my lover's bed
    with a wide open country in my eyes
    and these romantic dreams in my head

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  • 8 Bobby Jean

    Lyrics

    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 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
    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

    Also Appears On

  • 9 I'm Goin' Down

    Lyrics

    We sit in the car outside your house
    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
    well 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 in some fire fight
    I'm sick and tired of you setting me up
    Setting me up just to knock-a knock-a knock-a me down

    I pull you close but when we 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 just driving me down

  • 10 Glory Days

    Lyrics

    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 in, 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

    Well there's a girl that lives up the block
    back in school she could turn all the boy's heads
    Sometimes on a 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

    Now I 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, well time slips away
    and leaves you with nothing mister but
    boring stories of glory days

    Chorus (repeat twice)

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  • 11 Dancing in the Dark

    Lyrics

    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

    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 look in the mirror
    I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face
    Man I ain't getting nowhere
    I'm just living in a dump like this
    There's something happening somewhere
    baby I just know that there is

    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

    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 this laugh's on me

    Stay on the streets of this town
    and they'll be carving you up alright
    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

    You can't start a fire sitting 'round crying over a broken heart
    This gun's for hire
    Even if we're just dancing in the dark
    You can't start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart
    This gun's for hire
    Even if we're just dancing in the dark
    Even if we're just dancing in the dark
    Even if we're just dancing in the dark
    Even if we're just dancing in the dark
    Hey baby

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  • 12 My Hometown

    Lyrics

    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 maybe heading south
    I'm thirty-five 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

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