Live 02 Dec 2004 version
[Spoken intro:] I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight, thank you for your support for flood relief. All right, this is for the old fans.
Princess cards she sends me with her regards
Barroom eyes shine vacancy, to see her you gotta look hard
Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted
To her Cheshire smile I stand on file, she's all I ever wanted
But you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts
Honey, get your carpetbaggers off my back
You wouldn't even give me time to cover my tracks
You said, "Here's your mirror and your ball and jacks"
They ain't what I came for, and I'm sure you see that too
I came for you, for you, baby, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
For you, for you, darling, I came for you, your life was one long emergency
And your cloud line urges me, my electric surges free
Crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
Reveal yourself now to me girl while you got the strength to speak
They're waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks
But I could give it all to you now if only you would ask
Don't call for your surgeon, even he says it's too late
It ain't your lungs this time, it's your heart that holds your fate
Don't give me my money, honey, I don't want it back
You and your pony face and your union jack
You can take that local joker and teach him how to act
You know I was never that way even when I really cracked
Didn't you think I knew that you were born with the power of a locomotive
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?
Your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
You could laugh and cry in a single sound
All right
Your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the god
You were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
Remember how I poured salt on your tongue and hung just out of reach
And the band, they played the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
And that ragged, jagged melody still clings to me like a leech
That medal you wore on your chest always got in the way
You were like a little girl with a trophy, so soft to buy her way
We were both hitchhikers but you had your ears tuned to the roar
Of some metal-tempered engine on an alien distant shore
So you left to find a better reason than the one we were living for
And it ain't that nursery mouth I came back for
And it ain't the way that you're stretched out on the floor
'Cause I've broken all your windows and rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores?
You should know it's true
I came for you, for you, baby, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
For you, for you, darling, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
And your cloud line urges me, my electric surges free
I came for you, for you, baby, I came for you
For you, for you, baby, I came for you
For you, for you, baby, I came for you
[Spoken outro:] Yeah!
The above lyrics are for the live 02 Dec 2004 performance of FOR YOU at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, PA, during the "Flood Aid '04" benefit concert. The song was played solo on acoustic guitar.
Bruce Springsteen and Joe Grushecky & The Houserockers headlined a benefit concert on 02 Dec 2004 at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, PA, for Western Pennsylvanians who suffered damage from Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. Billed "Flood Aid '04", the benefit was put together by Joe Grushecky.
Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.
List of available versions of FOR YOU on this website:
FOR YOU [Album version]