Live 07 Nov 2016 version
[MC announcement:] Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Bruce Springsteen.
[Spoken intro:] Good evening. Yes, yes. Philadelphia, how are we? Let me hear you, let me hear you, Philadelphia how are we doing tonight? Alright.
Well 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
I just can't face myself alone again
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
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me
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
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open, these two lanes will take us anywhere
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
Oh oh come take my hand
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road, Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late but we can make it if we run
Oh oh oh Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold, Thunder Road
Well I got this guitar, 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, those words that I ain't spoken
But tonight girl we'll be free, all the promises will be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys that 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 streets
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
In the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone on the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers, tonight we're pulling outta here to win
The above lyrics are for the live 07 Nov 2016 performance of THUNDER ROAD at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA, during the only Hillary Clinton 2016 election rally on which Bruce Springsteen appeared. The song was played in a solo acoustic guitar and harmonica arrangement.
In 2016, Bruce Springsteen appeared on only election rally for U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, on the eve of the election. Accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and harmonica, Springsteen performed a three-song set at the rally.
List of available versions of THUNDER ROAD on this website:
THUNDER ROAD [Album version]