Live 18 Nov 2020 version
Last night I stood at your doorstep trying to figure out what went wrong
You just slipped something into my palm, then you were gone
I could smell the same deep green of summer, above me the same night sky was glowing
In the distance I could see the town where I was born
It's gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me, gonna be a long walk home
In town I passed Sal's grocery, the barbershop on South Street
I looked into their faces, they were all rank strangers to me
Veteran's Hall high upon the hill stood silent and alone
The diner was shuttered and boarded with a sign that just said "gone"
It's gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me, gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me, gonna be a long walk home
Gonna be a long walk home
Here everybody has a neighbor, everybody has a friend
Here everybody has a reason to begin again
My father said, "Son, we're lucky in this town, it's a beautiful place to be born
Just wraps its arms around you, nobody crowds you and nobody goes it alone
You know the flag flying over the courthouse means certain things are set in stone
Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't"
It's gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me, gonna be a long walk home
Hey pretty darling, don't wait up for me, gonna be a long walk home
It's gonna be a long walk home
It's gonna be a long walk home
The above lyrics are for the live 18 Nov 2020 performance of LONG WALK HOME at Stone Hill Farm in Colts Neck, NJ, during the fourteenth (2020) annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit. Springsteen performed the song solo on acoustic guitar.
The fourteenth annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit was held virtually due to Covid-19. It was broadcast on the Armed Forces Network and streamed on ABC News Live, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitch. The event featured taped comedy skits and musical performances from Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springsteen with Patti Scialfa, and Mickey Guyton. While the other musical artists performed one song each and were filmed in Nashville, Springsteen performed three songs from his nearly 100-year-old barn on Stone Hill Farm in Colts Neck, NJ ― HOUSE OF A THOUSAND GUITARS (with Patti Scialfa), LONG WALK HOME, and I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS (with Patti Scialfa). He also opened the hour-long event with a comical sketch alongside event host Jon Stewart.
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.
List of available versions of LONG WALK HOME on this website:
LONG WALK HOME [Album version]