Live 31 Jan 1998 version
[Bruce Springsteen (spoken intro):] All right, hope we got this one.
[Jon Bon Jovi (spoken intro):] We're doing it!
[Bruce Springsteen (spoken intro):] That's right. There we go. Wait, wait!
[Southside Johnny:] You light up my life, you...
[Bruce Springsteen (spoken intro):] (chuckles) Oh, ah. Come on, here we go! Southside, you ready to sing your part on this one?
[Southside Johnny (spoken intro):] I don't know the fucking thing!
[Bruce Springsteen (spoken intro):] (chuckles) Come, I'll waiting for you!
[Southside Johnny (spoken intro):] Oh, I'll be there!
| Bruce Springsteen: | Screen door slams |
| Crowd: | 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 | |
| I just can't face myself alone again | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | All right! |
| Well, don't you run back inside | |
| Darling, you know just what I'm here for | |
| So you're scared and you're thinking, maybe we ain't that young anymore | |
| Show a little faith, there's magic in the night | |
| You ain't a beauty, but, hey, you're all right | |
| Whoa, and that's all right with me | |
| Southside Johnny: | You can hide 'neath your — aah, 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 | |
| Jon Bon Jovi: | Well, I ain't no hero, that's understood |
| All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood | |
| With a chance, I'll make it good somehow | |
| What else can we do now | |
| Except | |
| All: | roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair |
| Well, the night's busted open, these two lanes will take us anywhere | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | We got one last chance to make it real |
| To trade in these wings on some wheels | |
| Jon Bon Jovi: | Climb in back, heaven's waiting down on the tracks |
| All: | Whoa, oh, come take my hand |
| We're riding out tonight to case the promised land | |
| Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Thunder Road, oh, Thunder Road, oh, Thunder Road | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Lying out there like a killer in the sun |
| Hey, I know it's late, we can make it if we run | |
| All: | Whoa, oh, oh, oh, Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold, Thunder Road |
| Jon Bon Jovi: | Well, I got my guitar and I learned how to make it talk |
| My car's out back if you're ready to take that long walk | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | 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, girl, we'll be free, all the promises will be broken | |
| All: | 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 | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | They scream your name at night in the street |
| Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet | |
| Southside Johnny: | In the lonely cool before dawn |
| Jon Bon Jovi: | You hear their engines roaring on |
| Bruce Springsteen: | But when you get to the porch |
| Jon Bon Jovi: | They're gone on the wind |
| Bruce Springsteen: | So Mary climb in |
| Springsteen and Bon Jovi: | It's a town full of losers |
| Jon Bon Jovi: | We're pulling out of here to win |
| Whoa! | |
[Bruce Springsteen (spoken outro):] Want to thank Jon Bon Jovi, who put all this together tonight. He got us all down here. Bobby Bandiera for rehearsing that band, man! Thank you, Johnny!
[Jon Bon Jovi (spoken outro):] Thank you everyone for coming, you all did a great thing tonight, we helped out somebody from your hometown, okay, and, uh, be careful driving home, we're going to the bar! Goodnight!
[Southside Johnny (spoken outro):] Thanks, Danny DeVito, for coming in, too. Thanks, Danny. Richie Sambora flew back from Europe just for tonight. Clarence Clemons came up from Florida. Came in from all over the place. And Jonny Bon Jovi, huh? The son of a bitch! Who knew?
The above lyrics are for live 31 Jan 1998 performance of THUNDER ROAD at Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ, during the "Come Together: Jon Bon Jovi & Friends" benefit concert. THUNDER ROAD was the show closer, with Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny, and Jon Bon Jovi sharing lead vocals. Steven Van Zandt, Patti Scialfa, Richie Sambora, and Clarence Clemons were also onstage, in addition to Bobby Bandiera's band.
The "Come Together: Jon Bon Jovi & Friends" benefit concert was organized by the Long Branch Police Department, The Asbury Park Press, and FPI Concerts, along with Jon Bon Jovi. The concert was to honor slain Long Branch police officer Sgt. Patrick King and raise money for the Sgt. Patrick King Memorial Fund to provide for his family. King, 45-year-old father of two young boys, was fatally shot on 20 Nov 1997 by a fugitive who had vowed to kill himself and a police officer rather than be captured and returned to jail.
Twenty musicians with ties to the Jersey shore music scene answered Jon Bon Jovi's call, including Bruce Springsteen and several members of the then-disbanded E Street Band (Clarence Clemons, Danni Frederici, Patti Scialfa, Steven Van Zandt, and Max Weinberg), Southside Johnny, Bobby Bandiera, and Richie Sambora among others. Actor Danny DeVito was the event's MC. Tickets, which were priced at $125, went on sale on 17 Jan 1998 noon and sold out in just eight minutes. The concert that was organized in short order raised more than $112,000 for King's widow and his two sons.
"It was a chance to forget about [the murder] a little bit," Long Branch police Sgt. Bruce Johantgen, one of about 50 city police officers who attended the show, told The Asbury Park Press. "The outpouring of love from the performers to the audience was unbelievable". Johantgen said he found it ironic that Bon Jovi and other performers thanked the audience for coming to the sold-out show. "From the police perspective, I kept thinking, 'We should be thanking you for giving your time'," Johantgen said.
This was a near-reunion of the fabled E Street Band and Springsteen's first full-length electric gig following the acoustic The Ghost Of Tom Joad Solo Acoustic Tour. Springsteen spent much (or possibly all) of the night onstage, singing or playing guitar only. Soundboard recording for the complete concert is available among collectors.
The 31 Jan 1998 show at Count Basie Theatre was commercially released in Europe. Since 2005 some enterprising record labels in Europe (mostly in the UK) have been releasing Bruce Springsteen radio and TV broadcasts (and some soundboard recordings) from the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Though these releases are not authorized by Bruce Springsteen or his record company, they are lawful due to a legal loophole in Europe.
Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.
List of available versions of THUNDER ROAD on this website:
THUNDER ROAD [Album version]
