Live July 2018 version
There's nothing like being young and leaving someplace. That was a feeling that, oh, one I loved. Maybe that's why I became a musician. Um... sleep late, stay up late. You do an awful lot of leaving. Night I left Freehold for the last time, I laid back on the couch, it was perched high atop a load of the band's junk furniture in the back of an open flatbed truck on a beautiful summer night. I was 19 years old. Ooh, that felt pretty good. Soft ocean breeze of the shore was reaching all the way inland. And as we drew through town, for the very last time, we were stopped by the police... who informed us that there was a law against moving after dark. What the fuck? Who the fuck would know that? Don't move your shit after dark? What are we running off with Freehold's great antiquities? The sun goes down, they'll bust your ass in Freehold, son. Anyway, they uh, they sent us on our way. Glad to be rid of the town hippies, I guess. And so, I lay back on my couch and I was watching the tree branches rush above me and the stars scrolling in the night sky, and I remember I felt absolutely wonderful. I had nothing, no parents. They'd moved away with my little sister Pam to California in 1969. My sister Virginia, great soul that she is, she got pregnant and had a baby at 18. She left high school, married a competitive bull rider, and they moved into the wilds of southern New Jersey because that's where the cowboys live. I ain't kidding. The real joke is, 50 years later, they're still together and they still go to the rodeo. Well I had no money and no family and no realistic future. But yet I remember laying on that couch with the summer wind rushing over me and, you know, that, that saltwater smell in the air of the shore coming on, and thinking... I was just happy. I was happy. And I said, "I got it all," you know? Maybe I did, you know? Maybe there's nothing like that moment in your life of being young and leaving someplace, all that youthful freedom. You feel finally being untethered from everything you've ever known. The life you've lived, your past, your parents, the world you've gotten used to and that you've loved and hated. Your life laying before you like a blank page. It's the one thing I miss about getting older, I miss the beauty of that blank page. So much life in front of you. Its promise, its possibilities, its mysteries, its adventures. That blank page just laying there. Daring you to write on it.
The screen door slams, Mary's dress sways
Like a vision she dance across the porch as the radio plays
It's Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
Just can't face myself alone again
Don't you run back inside, darling you know just what I'm here for
You're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore
Well 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 now 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 oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road, Thunder Road
Yeah 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 and I learned how to make it talk
My car's out back if you're ready to take that long, long, 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
Tonight we'll be free, all the promises will be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes of all the men 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 street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
In the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
When you get to the porch they're gone on the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers, we're pulling out of here to win
Da da da da da, da da
Da da da da da da da
Da da da da da da, da da da da
Da da da da, wooo
The above lyrics are for the live July 2018 performance of THUNDER ROAD at Walter Kerr Theatre in New York City, NY, during Springsteen On Broadway. The song was played solo on acoustic guitar and harmonica.
This performance of THUNDER ROAD was recorded on 17 or 18 July 2018 during the taping of the Springsteen On Broadway Netflix special. It was released on the Springsteen On Broadway album in 2018.
Springsteen On Broadway was a Bruce Springsteen concert residency held at Walter Kerr Theatre (in 2017-2018) and St. James Theatre (in 2021) in New York City, NY. The show consisted of Springsteen performing five shows a week, Tuesday through Saturday, at the Broadway theatres. The sold-out series of performances began with seven previews starting on 03 Oct 2017 and officially opened on 12 Oct 2017. It was extended three times after its initial eight-week run, running through 15 Dec 2018 and bringing the total number of performances at Walter Kerr Theatre to 238. On 10 Jun 2018, Springsteen received a special Tony Award for his Broadway show. In 2021, an additional limited run was announced, this time held at St. James Theatre instead of Walter Kerr Theatre. This new series of performances opened on 26 Jun 2021 and ran through 04 Sep 2021, bringing the total number of performances at both theatres to 268.
The show featured Springsteen, solo, playing guitar, piano, and harmonica, performing his music, restating incidents from his 2016 autobiography Born To Run, and performing other spoken reminiscences written for the show. His wife, Patti Scialfa, has also appeared at most shows, singing backing vocals on a total of three different songs.
Springsteen On Broadway, a Netflix special directed by Grammy- and Emmy-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny, was filmed during two special invitation-only shows on 17 and 18 Jul 2018. The film launched globally on Netflix on 16 Dec 2018 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time, just hours after the final Broadway performance at Walter Kerr Theatre closed. Two days prior, on 14 Dec 2018, Columbia Records released Springsteen On Broadway, an audio album encompassing the full film soundtrack. The audio was mixed by Bob Clearmountain and mastered by Bob Ludwig. The album is available physically as a 2-disc CD set or a 4-disc LP set, as well as digitally.
Side 1:
Side 2:
Side 3:
Side 4:
Side 5:
Side 6:
Side 7:
Side 8:
Disc 1:
Disc 2:
List of available versions of THUNDER ROAD on this website:
THUNDER ROAD [Album version]