Well, there she sits buddy justa gleaming in the sun There to greet a working man when his day is done I'm gonna pack my pa and I'm gonna pack my aunt I'm gonna take them down to the Cadillac Ranch
Eldorado fins, whitewalls and skirts Rides just like a little bit of heaven here on earth Well buddy when I die throw my body in the back And drive me to the junkyard in my Cadillac
Cadillac, Cadillac , long and dark, shiny and black Open up your engines let 'em roar Tearing up the highway like a big old dinosaur
James Dean in that Mercury '49 Junior Johnson runnin' thru the woods of Caroline Even Burt Reynolds in that black Trans-Am All gonna meet down at the Cadillac Ranch
Cadillac, Cadillac , long and dark, shiny and black Open up them engines let 'em roar Tearing up the highway like a big old dinosaur
Hey, little girlie in the blue jeans so tight Drivin' alone through the Wisconsin night You're my last love baby you're my last chance Don't let 'em take me to the Cadillac Ranch
Cadillac, Cadillac , long and dark, shiny and black Pulled up to my house today!
The screen door slams Mary's dress waves 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 Don't run back inside darling you know just what I'm here for So you're scared and you're thinkingthat 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 vainfor 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 Riding out tonight to case the promised land Oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road oh Thunder Road Lying out there like a killer in the sun Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run Oh Thunder Road, sit tight take hold Thunder Road
Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk And 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 And I know you're lonely for words that I ain't spoken But tonight we'll be free all the promises'll be broken 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
They scream your name at night in the street Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet And 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 And I'm pulling out of here to win
One soft infested summer me and Terry became friends Trying in vain to breathe the fire we was born in Catching rides to the outskirts tying faith between our teeth Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house getting wasted in the heat And hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets With a love so hard and filled with defeat Running for our lives at night on them backstreets
Slow dancing in the dark on the beach at Stockton's Wing Where desperate lovers park we sat with the last of the Duke Street Kings Huddled in our cars waiting for the bells that ring In the deep heart of the night to set us loose from everything to go running on the backstreets, running on the backstreets We swore we'd live forever on the backstreets we take it together
Endless juke joints and Valentino drag where dancers scraped the tears Up off the street dressed down in rags running into the darkness Some hurt bad some really dying at night sometimes it seemed You could hear the whole damn city crying blame it on the lies that killed us Blame it on the truth that ran us down you can blame it all on me Terry It don't matter to me now when the breakdown hit at midnight There was nothing left to say but I hated him and I hated you when you went away
Laying here in the dark you're like an angel on my chest Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see Trying to learn how to walk like heroes we thought we had to be And after all this time to find we're just like all the rest Stranded in the park and forced to confess To hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets We swore forever friends on the backstreets until the end Hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets
Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by the highway in a ditch He's lookin' down kinda puzzled pokin' that dog with a stick Got his car door flung open he's standin' out on highway 31 Like if he stood there long enough that dog'd get up and run Struck me kinda funny seem kinda funny sir to me Still at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe
Now Mary Lou loved Johnny with a love mean and true She said "Baby I'll work for you every day and bring my money home to you" One day he up and left her and ever since that She waits down at the end of that dirt road for young Johnny to come back Struck me kinda funny seemed kind of funny sir to me How at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe
Take a baby to the river Kyle William they called him Wash the baby in the water take away little Kyle's sin In a whitewash shotgun shack an old man passes away take his body to the graveyard and over him they pray Lord won't you tell us tell us what does it mean Still at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe
Congregation gathers down by the riverside Preacher stands with his Bible groom stands waitin' for his bride Congregation gone and the sun sets behind a weepin' willow tree Groom stands alone and watches the river rush on so effortlessly Wonderin' where can his baby be still at the end of every hard earned day people
I had a job, I had a girl I had something going mister in this world I got laid off down at the lumber yard Our love went bad, times got hard Now I work down at the carwash Where all it ever does is rain Don't you feel like you're a rider on a downbound train
She just said "Joe I gotta go We had it once we ain't got it any more" She packed her bags left me behind She bought a ticket on the Central Line Nights as I sleep, I hear that whistle whining I feel her kiss in the misty rain And I feel like I'm a rider on a downbound train
Last night I heard your voice You were crying, crying, you were so alone You said your love had never died You were waiting for me at home Put on my jacket, I ran through the woods I ran till I thought my chest would explode There in the clearing, beyond the highway In the moonlight, our wedding house shone I rushed through the yard, I burst through the front door My head pounding hard, up the stairs I climbed The room was dark, our bed was empty Then I heard that long whistle whine And I dropped to my knees, hung my head and cried
Now I swing a sledge hammer on a railroad gang Knocking down them cross ties, working in the rain Now don't it feel like you're a rider on a downbound train
Bobby said he'd pull out Bobby stayed in Janey had a baby it wasn't any sin They were set to marry on a summer day Bobby got scared and he ran away Jane moved in with her ma out on Shawnee Lake She sighed Ma sometimes my whole life feels like one big mistake She settled in in a back room time passed on Later that winter a son came along
Spare parts and broken hearts Keep the world turnin' around
Now Janey walked that baby across the floor night after night But she was a young girl and she missed the party lights Meanwhile in South Texas in a dirty oil patch Bobby heard 'bout his son bein' born and swore he wasn't ever goin' back
Spare parts and broken hearts Keep the world turnin' around
Janey heard about a woman over in Calverton Put her baby in the river let the river roll on She looked at her boy in the crib where he lay Got down on her knees cried till she prayed Mist was on the water low run the tide Janey held her son down at the riverside Waist deep in water how bright the sun shone She lifted him in her arms and carried him home As he lay sleeping in her bed Janey took a look around at everything Went to a drawer in her bureau and got out her old engagement ring Took out her wedding dress tied that ring up in its sash Went straight down to the pawn shop man and walked out with some good cold cash
In the day we sweat it out in the streets of A runaway American dream At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines Sprung from cages out on highway 9, Chrome wheeled, fuel injected and steppin' out over the line Baby this town rips the bones from your back It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap We gotta get out while we're young 'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run
Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend I want to guard your dreams and visions Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims and strap your hands across my engines Together we could break this trap We'll run till we drop, baby we'll never go back Will you walk with me out on the wire 'Cause baby I'm just a scared and lonely rider But I gotta find out how it feels I want to know if love is wild girl I want to know if love is real
Beyond the Palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors And the boys try to look so hard The amusement park rises bold and stark Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist I wanna die with you Wendy on the streets tonight In an everlasting kiss
The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive Everybody's out on the run tonight But there's no place left to hide Together Wendy we'll live with the sadness I'll love you with all the madness in my soul Someday girl I don't know when we're gonna get to that place Where we really want to go and we'll walk in the sun But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack I went out for a ride and I never went back Like a river that don't know where it's flowing I took a wrong turn and I just kept going
Everybody's got a hungry heart Everybody's got a hungry heart Lay down your money and you play your part Everybody's got a hungry heart
I met her in a Kingstown bar We fell in love I knew it had to end We took what we had and we ripped it apart Now here I am down in Kingstone again
Everybody needs a place to rest Everybody wants to have a home Don't make no difference what nobody says Ain't nobody like to be alone
Everybody's got a hungry heart Everybody's got a hungry heart Lay down your money and you play your part Everybody's got a hungry heart
I come from down in the valley Where mister when you're young They bring you up to do like your daddy done Me and Mary we met in high school When she was just seventeen We'd ride out of this valley down to where the fields were green
We'd go down to the river and into the river we'd dive Oh down to the river we'd ride
Then I got Mary pregnant and man that was all she wrote For my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat We went down to the courthouse And the judge put it all to rest No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle No flowers no wedding dress
That night we went down to the river and into the river we'd dive Oh down to the river we did ride
I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy Now all them things that seemed so important Well mister they vanished right into the air Now I just act like I don't remember Mary acts like she don't care
But I remember us riding in my brother's car Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir At night on them banks I'd lie awake And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take Now those memories come back to haunt me they haunt me like a curse Is a dream a lie if it don't come true Or is it something worse That sends me down to the river Though I know the river is dry That sends me down to the river tonight Down to the river my baby and I Oh down to the river we ride
Our luck may have died and Our love may be cold but with you forever I'll stay We're goin' out where the sand's turnin' to gold So put on your stockin's baby ' Cause the night's getting cold And everything dies baby that's a fact But maybe everything that dies someday comes back Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty And meet me tonight in AtlanticCity