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Nebraska
by Bruce Springsteen
ALBUM RANKINGS:
Ratings and rankings are based on all available critic reviews and awards.
Overall Rating:
3.4629
Avg. Critic Score:
3.5325
Nebraska Lyrics
Lyrics
Disc
Track
Title
- I saw her standin' on her front lawn just twirlin' her baton
- Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people died
- From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska with a sawed off .410 on my lap
- Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path
- I can't say that I'm sorry for the things that we done
- At least for a little while sir me and her we had us some fun
- The jury brought in a guilty verdict and the judge he sentenced me to death
- Midnight in a prison storeroom with leather straps across my chest
- Sheriff when the man pulls that switch sir and snaps my poor head back
- You make sure my pretty baby is sittin' right there on my lap
- They declared me unfit to live said into that great void my soul'd be hurled
- They wanted to know why I did what I did
- Well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world.
- Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night now they blew up his house too
- Down on the boardwalk they're gettin' ready for a fight gonna see what them racket boys can do
- Now there's trouble busin' in from outta state and the D.A. can't get no relief
- Gonna be a rumble out on the promenade and the gamblin' commissions hangin' on by the skin of its teeth
- Everything dies baby that's a fact
- But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
- Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty and meet me tonight in Atlantic City
- Well I got a job and tried to put my money away
- But I got in too deep and I could not pay
- So I drew what I had from the Central Trust
- And I bought us two tickets on that Coast City bus
- Everything dies baby that's a fact
- But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
- Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty and meet me tonight in Atlantic City
- Now our luck may have died and our love may be cold but with you forever I'll stay
- We're goin' out where the sands turnin' to gold so put on your stockin's cause the nights gettin' cold and maybe everything dies
- That's a fact but maybe everything that dies someday comes back
- Now I been lookin' for a job but it's hard to find
- Down here it's just winners and losers and don't get caught on the wrong side of that line
- Well I'm tired of comin' out on the losin' end
- So honey last night I met this guy and I'm gonna do a little favor for him
- Well I guess everything dies baby that's a fact
- But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
- Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty and meet me tonight in Atlantic City
- There's place out on the edge of town sir
- Risin' above the factories and the fields
- Now ever since I was a child I can remember that mansion on the hill
- In the day you can see the children playing
- On the road that leads to those gates of hardened steel
- Steel gates that completely surround sir the mansion on the hill
- At night my daddy'd take me and we'd ride through the streets of a town so silent and still
- Park on a back road along the highway side
- Look up at that mansion on the hill
- In the summer all the lights would shine there'd be music playin' people laughin' all the time
- Me and my sister we'd hide out in the tall corn fields
- Sit and listen to the mansion on the hill
- Tonight down here in Linden Town I watch the cars rushin' by home from the mill
- There's a beautiful full moon rising above the mansion on the hill
- Well they closed down the auto plant in Mahwah late that month
- Ralph went out lookin' for a job but he couldn't find none
- He came home too drunk from mixin'
- Tanqueray and wine
- He got a gun shot a night clerk now they call 'm Johnny 99
- Down in the part of town where when you hit a red light you don't stop
- Johnny's wavin' his gun around and threatenin' to blow his top
- When an off duty cop snuck up on him from behind
- Out in front of the Club Tip Top they slapped the cuffs on Johnny 99
- Well the city supplied a public defender but the judge was Mean John Brown
- He came into the courtroom and stared poor Johnny down
- Well the evidence is clear gonna let the sentence son fit the crime
- Prison for 98 and a year and we'll call it even Johnny 99
- A fistfight broke out in the courtroom they had to drag Johnny's girl away
- His mama stood up and shouted "judge don't take my boy this way"
- Well son you got a statement you'd like to make
- Before the bailiff comes to forever take you away
- Now judge I got debts no honest man could pay
- The bank was holdin' my mortgage and they was takin' my house away
- Now I ain't sayin' that makes me an innocent man
- But it was more 'n all this that put that gun in my hand
- Well your honor I do believe I'd be better off dead
- And if you can take a man's life for the thoughts that's in his head
- Then won't you sit back in that chair and think it over judge one more time
- And let 'em shave off my hair and put me on that execution line
- My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state
- I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8
- I always done an honest job as honest as I could
- I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain't no good
- Now ever since we was young kids it's been the same come down
- I get a call over the radio Franky's in trouble downtown
- Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away
- But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other way
- Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
- Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
- I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
- Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good
- Well Franky went in the army back in 1965 I got a farm deferment settled down took Maria for my wife
- But them wheat prices kept on droppin' till it was like we were gettin' robbed
- Franky came home in '68 and me I took this job
- Yea we're laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
- Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
- I catch him when he's strayin', teach him how to walk that line
- Man turns his back on his family he ain't no friend of mine
- The night was like any other, I got a call 'bout quarter to nine
- There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line
- There was a kid lyin' on the floor lookin' bad, bleedin' hard from his head there was a girl cryin' at a table, it was Frank they said
- Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
- I must of done 110 through Michigan county that night
- 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 5 miles from here
- I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear
- Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
- Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
- I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
- Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good
- New Yersey Turnpike ridin' on a wet night 'neath the refinery's glow, out where the great black rivers flow
- License, registration, I ain't got none, but I got a clear conscience
- 'Bout the things that I done
- Mister state trooper please don't stop me...
- Maybe you got a kid maybe you got a pretty wife, the only thing that I got's been botherin' me my whole life
- Mister state trooper please don't stop me
- In the wee wee hours your mind gets hazy, radio relay towers lead me to my baby
- Radio's jammed up with talk show stations
- It's just talk, talk, talk till you lose your patience
- Mister state trooper please don't stop me
- Hey somebody out there, listen to my last prayer
- Hi ho silver-o deliver me from nowhere
- My little sister's in the front seat with an ice cream cone
- My ma's in the backseat sittin' all alone
- As my pa steers her slow out of the lot for a test drive down Michigan Avenue
- Now my ma she fingers her wedding band
- And watches the salesman stare at my old man's hands
- He's tellin' us all 'bout the break he'd give us if he could but he just can't
- Well if I could I swear I know just what I'd do
- Now mister the day the lottery I win I ain't ever gonna ride in no used car again
- Now the neighbors come from near and far
- As we pull up in our brand new used car
- I wish he'd just hit the gas and let out a cry and tell 'em all they can kiss our asses goodbye
- My dad he sweats the same job from mornin' to mornn
- Me I walk home on the same dirty streets where I was born
- Up the block I can hear my little sister in the front seat blowin' that horn
- The sounds echo'in all down Michigan Avenue
- Now mister the day my number comes in I ain't ever gonna ride in no used car again
- I had the carburetor cleaned and checked with her line blown out she's hummin' like a turbojet
- Propped her up in the backyard on concrete blocks for a new clutch plate and a new set of shocks
- Took her down to the carwash check the plugs and points
- I'm goin' out tonight I'm gonna rock that joint
- Early north Jersey industrial skyline I'm a all set cobra jet creepin' through the nighttime
- Gotta find a gas station gotta find a payphone this turnpike sure is spooky at night when you're all alone
- Gotta hit the gas 'cause I'm runnin' late, this New Jersey n the mornin' like a lunar landscape
- The boss don't dig me so he put me on the nightshift
- It's an all night run to get back to where my baby lives
- In the wee wee hours your mind gets hazy radio relay towers won't you lead me to my baby
- Underneath the overpass trooper hits his party light switch
- Goodnight good luck one two powershift
- I met Wanda when she was employed behind the counter at the route 60 Bobs Big Boy fried chicken on the front seat she's sittin' in my lap
- We're wipin' our fingers on a Texaco roadmap
- I remember Wanda up on scrap metal hill with them big brown eyes that make your heart stand still
- 5 A.M. oil pressure's sinkin' fast
- I make a pit stop wipe the windshield check the gas
- Gotta call my baby on the telephone
- Let her know that her daddy's comin' on home
- Sit tight little mamma I'm commin' round I got 3 more hours but I'm coverin' ground
- Your eyes get itchy in the wee wee hours sun's just a red ball risin' over them refinery towers
- Radio's jammed up with gospel stations lost souls callin' long distance salvation
- Hey mr. deejay woncha hear my last prayer hey ho rock 'n roll deliver me from nowhere
- Last night I dreamed that I was a child out where the pines grow wild and tall
- I was trying to make it home through the forest before the darkness falls
- I heard the wind rustling through the trees and ghostly voices rose from the fields
- I ran with my heart pounding down that broken path
- With the devil snappin' at my heels
- I broke through the trees and there in he night
- My father's house stood shining hard and bright the branches and brambles tore my clothes and scratched my arms
- But I ran till I fell shaking in his arms
- 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
- 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 day people find some reason to believe
- Now Mary Lou loved Johnny with a love mean and true
- She said baby I'll work for you everyday and bring my money home to you
- One day he up and left her and ever since that
- She waits down at the end of that dirt road for young Johnny to come back
- Struck me kinda funny funny yea indeed how at the end of every hard earned day you can find some reason to believe
- Take a baby to the river Kyle William they called him
- Wash the baby in the water take away little Kyle's sin
- In a whitewash shotgun shack an old man passes away take the body to the graveyard and over him they pray Lord won't you tell us,
- Tell us what does it mean
- At the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe
- Congregation gathers down by the riverside
- Preacher stands with his bible, groom stands waitin' for his bride
- Congregation gone and the sun sets behind a weepin' willow tree
- Groom stands alone and watches the river rush on so effortlessly
- Wonderin' where can his baby be still at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe
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