The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive

Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz

At night sometimes it seemed you could hear the whole damn city crying

You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright, and that's alright with me

Now I know your mama she don't like me 'cause I play in a rock and roll band

I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said 'Sit down' I stood up

Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun, oh but mama that's where the fun is

Puerto Rican Jane, oh won't you tell me what's your name

Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king, and a king ain't satisfied 'till he rules everything

Now I hear she's got a house up in Fairview, and a style she's trying to maintain

She's waiting tonight down in the parking lot outside the 7-11 store

She says baby if you wanna be wild you got a lot to learn, close your eyes let them melt, let them fire, let them burn

Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes. And you just better believe, boy, somebody's gonna get hurt tonight

For my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat

Like a river that don't know where it's flowing, I took a wrong turn and I just kept going

We got married, and swore we'd never part, then little by little we drifted from each other's heart

All day you've been working that hard line, now tonight you're gonna have a good time

Your Mamma's yappin' in the back seat, tell her to push over and move them big feet

Well I got a job and tried to put my money away, but I got debts that no honest man can pay

Maybe you got a kid, maybe you got a pretty wife the only thing that I got's been both'rin' me my whole life

I go to put my arm around you and you give me a look like I'm way out of bounds

Sometimes it's like someone took a knife baby edgy and dull and cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my soul

I'm just calling one last time not to change your mind, but just to say I miss you baby

I ain't nothing but tired, man I'm just tired and bored with myself

We learned more from a three minute record, baby, than we ever learned in school

Well I've tried so hard baby, but I just can't see what a woman like you is doing with me

When the change was made uptown and the Big Man joined the band, from the coastline to the city all the little pretties raise their hands

You and me we were the pretenders, we let it all slip away

Come on now try and understand the way I feel when I'm in your hands

She'll let you in her mouth, if the words you say are right

Out on the street your chances are zero

Hey there mister can you tell me what happened to the seeds I've sown

Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free, look in their eyes Mom you'll see me

Her brains they rattle and her bones they shake, whoah, she's an angel from the Innerlake

You see all the romantic movies, you dream and take the boys home

I pick you up with flowers when you get off from work, it's like you don't even care, it's like I'm some kind of jerk

Cold rain running down the front of my shirt, I'm flat on my back wheels in the dirt

There ain't no storybook story, there's no never-ending song

Now's there's tears on the pillow darlin' where we slept, and you took my heart when you left

I make my way through this darkness, I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me

That you know flag flying over the courthouse means certain things are set in stone - who we are, what we'll do and what we won't

Woke up Election Day, skies gunpowder and shades of gray

Have you ever seen a one legged dog makin' his way down the street

Thunder Road, we were gonna take it all and throw it all away

Leave behind your sorrows, let this day be the last. Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine, and all this darkness past

I been stumbling on good hearts turned to stone, the road of good intentions has gone dry as a bone

There's diamonds in the sidewalk, the's gutters lined in song, dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long

I've done my best to live the right way, I get up every morning and go to work each day

I was the prince of the paupers crowned downtown at the beggar's bash

Without you, I'm a drummer, girl, that can't keep a beat, an ice cream truck on a deserted street