THUNDER ROAD

Live 07 Nov 2007 version



[Spoken intro:] This is my last tune, this is one I wrote back when it was, uh, sort of a musician-heal-thyself times, so uh, I'm gonna send this out, this is for our good and swift, heal them with love, and we pray for your strength and hope.

The screen door slams, Mary's dress sways
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey, that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
Just can't face myself alone anymore
Well, don't you run back inside
Darling, you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore
Well, show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but, hey, you're all right
That's all right with me
Oh, this is it!

You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain for a savior to rise from these streets
Well, I'm no hero, that's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Yeah, what else can we do now
Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair
Yeah, the night's busted open, these two lanes will take us anywhere
Yeah, we got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back, heaven's waiting down on the tracks
Whoa, oh, come take my hand
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land
Whoa, oh, oh, Thunder Road, oh, Thunder Road, Thunder Road
It's lying out there like a killer in the sun
I know it's late, but we can make it if we run
Whoa, oh, oh, Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold, Thunder Road

Well, I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk
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
I know you're lonely, there's words that I ain't spoken
Tonight we'll be free, all the promises will 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
In the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
When you get to the porch, they're gone
On the wind; so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers, and we're pulling out of here to win


Info

The above lyrics are for the live 07 Nov 2007 performance of THUNDER ROAD at Town Hall in New York City, NY, during the first (2007) annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit. The song was played in a solo acoustic guitar and harmonica arrangement.

Bruce Springsteen played a three-song set during the benefit concert: THIS HARD LAND, DEVIL'S ARCADE, THUNDER ROAD. Given that the event was part of the New York Comedy Festival, Springsteen preceded each song with a joke. After his set, he rolled onstage on his '91 Harley Davidson motorbike, which was auctioned off for $85,000 in benefit of the cause.

Stand Up For Heroes

Stand Up For Heroes is an annual benefit organized by the Bob Woodruff Foundation to raise money for injured U.S. servicemen, veterans, and their families. Robert "Bob" Warren Woodruff is an American television journalist. He was the newly appointed co-anchor of ABC World News Tonight when on 29 Jan 2006, while reporting on U.S. and Iraqi security forces in Iraq, he was critically injured by a roadside bomb that struck his vehicle. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and spent 36 days in a medically induced coma. He was not expected to survive, but he recovered and started the Bob Woodruff Foundation, a non-profit helping other Americans who were similarly wounded in war.

Bruce Springsteen has been appearing on almost all of the annual benefits since they started in 2007, playing a handful of songs each time and offering for auction one of his guitars or motorcycles to benefit the foundation.

  • 07 Nov 2007 at Town Hall, New York City, NY (first annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 05 Nov 2008 at Town Hall, New York City, NY (second annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 04 Nov 2009 at Town Hall, New York City, NY (third annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 03 Nov 2010 at Beacon Theatre, New York City, NY (fourth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 09 Nov 2011 at Beacon Theatre, New York City, NY (fifth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 08 Nov 2012 at Beacon Theatre, New York City, NY (sixth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 06 Nov 2013 at The Theater At Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY (seventh annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 05 Nov 2014 at The Theater At Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY (eighth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 10 Nov 2015 at The Theater At Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY (ninth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 01 Nov 2016 at The Theater At Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY (tenth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 05 Nov 2018 at Hulu Theater At Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY (twelfth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 04 Nov 2019 at Hulu Theater At Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY (thirteenth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 18 Nov 2020 at Stone Hill Farm, Colts Neck, NJ (fourteenth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 08 Nov 2021 at Alice Tully Hall, New York City, NJ (during the fifteenth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 07 Nov 2022 at David Geffen Hall, New York City, NJ (during the sixteenth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
  • 06 Nov 2023 at David Geffen Hall, New York City, NJ (during the seventeenth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit)
Stand Up For Heroes
Stand Up For Heroes

Credits

Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.

Available Versions

List of available versions of THUNDER ROAD on this website:

THUNDER ROAD [Album version]
THUNDER ROAD [Early draft]
THUNDER ROAD [Alternative version #1]
THUNDER ROAD [Alternative version #2]
THUNDER ROAD [Alternative version #3]
THUNDER ROAD [Alternative version #4]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 05 Feb 1975 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 20 Jul 1975 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 17 Oct 1975 (early show) version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 18 Oct 1975 (early show) version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 18 Nov 1975 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 31 Dec 1975 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 07 Apr 1976 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 25 Mar 1977 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 13 May 1977 (early show) version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 13 Sep 1977 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 19 Sep 1978 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 08 Dec 1978 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 21 Sep 1979 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 22 Sep 1979 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 03 Oct 1980 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 03 Jul 1981 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 08 Jun 1984 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 19 Nov 1984 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 27 Jul 1988 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 02 Sep 1988 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 16 Nov 1990 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 22 Sep 1992 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 28 Sep 1992 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 24 Jun 1993 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 15 Feb 1995 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 21 Feb 1995 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 05 Apr 1995 (Sony Music Studios) version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 09 Jul 1995 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 05 May 1997 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 22 May 1997 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 31 Jan 1998 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 23 Oct 1999 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 27 Jun 2000 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 27 Jun 2000 / 01 Jul 2000 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 01 Jul 2000 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 19 Oct 2001 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 29 Aug 2002 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 04 Oct 2002 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 16 Oct 2002 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 19 Feb 2003 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 29 Apr 2003 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 22 Jun 2003 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 01 Nov 2004 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 04 Apr 2005 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 12 Oct 2005 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 07 Nov 2007 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 09 Nov 2007 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 14 Mar 2008 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 07 May 2008 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 18 Jun 2008 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 23 Aug 2008 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 04 Oct 2008 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 16 Oct 2008 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 30 May 2009 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 17 Nov 2009 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 22 Nov 2009 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 04 Nov 2010 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 15 Jan 2011 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 03 Nov 2011 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 04 Nov 2011 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 14 Jan 2012 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 09 Mar 2012 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 06 Apr 2012 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live 07 Nov 2016 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Live July 2018 version]
THUNDER ROAD [Greg Kihn's cover version]
THUNDER ROAD [Badly Drawn Boy's cover version]
THUNDER ROAD [Cowboy Junkies' cover version]
THUNDER ROAD [Kevin Rowland's cover version]

Page last updated: 06 Mar 2015