WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY

Live 01 Nov 2016 version

Well 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 are looking to get hurt
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 track
One day I looked straight at her and she looked straight back

I'm 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 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 she's just a little girl
She don't know nothing about the cruel cruel world"

We lit out down to Florida and we got along all right
One day her brothers came and got her and they took me in a black and white
Prosecutor kept the promise that he made on that day
The judge got mad and he put me straight away
I wake up every morning to the church bell clang
Me and the warden go swinging on the Charlotte County road gang

I'm 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

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

Woo woo woo woo
Woo woo woo

[Spoken outro:] Thank you!

Info

The above lyrics are for the live 01 Nov 2007 performance of WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY at The Theater At Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, during the tenth (2016) annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit. The song was played in a solo acoustic guitar arrangement.

Bruce Springsteen played a four-song acoustic set during the benefit concert: WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY, I'LL WORK FOR YOUR LOVE, LONG WALK HOME, DANCING IN THE DARK. Given that the event was part of the New York Comedy Festival, Springsteen told a dirty joke between each two songs. After his set, a signed replica of Springsteen's famous Born To Run Fender Esquire guitar was auctioned and realized $280,000 for the Bob Woodruff Foundation. Springsteen had upped the prize by offering to take the winner and three friends on a two-hour trip in his 1967 Cadillac from his house to the Jersey Freeze restaurant in Freehold, NJ, for a dinner of hot dogs and hamburgers. He also threw in his mother's lasagna.

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

Available Versions

List of available versions of WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY on this website:

Page last updated: 13 Nov 2016