Greatest Hits lyrics

Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night
Now they blew up his house too
Down on the boardwalk theyre getting ready for a fight
Gonna see what them racket boys can do

Now theres trouble busin in from outta state
And the D.A. cant get no relief
Gonna be a rumble out on the promenade
And the gambling commissions hangin on by the skin of its teeth

Everything dies baby thats a fact

Lights out tonight
trouble in the heartland
Got a head-on collision
smashin' in my guts, man
I'm caught in a cross fire
that I don't understand
But there's one thing I know for sure girl
I don't give a damn
For the same old played out scenes
I don't give a damn
For just the in betweens
Honey, I want the heart, I want the soul
I want control right now
you better listen to me baby

Well my soul checked out missing as I sat listening
To the hours and minutes tickin' away
Yeah, just sittin' around waitin' for my life to begin
While it was all just slippin' away.
I'm tired of waitin' for tomorrow to come
Or that train to come roarin' 'round the bend.
I got a new suit of clothes a pretty red rose
And a woman I can call my friend

These are better days baby

We played king of the mountain out on the end
The world come chargin' up the hill, and we were women and men
Now there's so much that time, time and memory fade away
We got our own roads to ride and chances we gotta take
We stood side by side each one fightin' for the other
We said until we died we'd always be blood brothers
Now the hardness of this world slowly grinds your dreams away

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up

Born in the USA
I was born in the USA
I was born in the USA
Born in the USA

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Send me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

Born in the USA

In the day, we sweat it out on the streets
Of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory
In suicide machines
Sprung from cages on Highway 9
Chrome-wheeled, fuel-injected
And steppin' out over the line
Oh, 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

I HOLD YOU IN MY ARMS
AS THE BAND PLAYS
WHAT ARE THOSE WORDS WHISPERED BABY
JUST AS YOU TURN AWAY
I SAW YOU LAST NIGHT
OUT ON THE EDGE OF TOWN
I WANNA READ YOUR MIND
TO KNOW JUST WHAT IVE GOT IN
THIS NEW THING IVE FOUND

SO TELL ME WHAT I SEE
WHEN I LOOK IN YOUR EYES
IS THAT YOU BABY
OR JUST A BRILLIANT DISGUISE

I HEARD SOMEBODY CALL YOUR NAME
FROM UNDERNEATH OUR WILLOW

I get up in the evening
And I ain't got nothing to say
I come home in the morning
I go to bed feeling the same way
I ain't nothing but tired
Man Im just tired and bored with myself
Hey there baby I could use just a little help

-Chorus-
You can't start a fire
You can't start a fire without a spark
This gun's for hire
Even if we're just dancing in the dark

Message keeps getting clearer

I had a friend was a big baseball player
back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking in, he was walking out
We went back inside sat down had a few drinks
but all he kept talking about was

Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye

You and me we were the pretenders
we let it all slip away
in the end what you dont surrender
well the world just strips away

girl aint no kindness in the face of strangers
aint gonna find no miracles here
well you can wait on your blessings my darlin'
but i got a deal for you right here

i aint looking for prayers or pity
i aint coming round searchin' for a crutch
i just want someone to talk to

Bobby's got a gun that he keeps beneath his pillow (oh yeah)
Out on the street your chances are zero (oh yeah)
Take a look around you (come on down)
It ain't too complicated
You're messin' with Murder Incorporated

Now you check over your shoulder everywhere that you go (oh yeah)
Walkin' down the street, there's eyes in every shadow (oh yeah)
You better take a look around you (come on down)

I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
Id sit on his lap in that big old Buick
and steer as we drove through town
Hed tousle my hair and say son take a good look around,
this is your hometown

This is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown

In 65 tension was running high at my high school

She'll let you in her house
If you come knockin' late at night
She'll let you in her mouth
If the words you say are right
If you pay the price
She'll let you deep inside
But there's a secret garden she hides

She'll let you in her car
To go drivin' 'round
She'll let you into the parts of herself
That'll bring you down
She'll let you in her heart
If you got a hammer and a vise

I was bruised and battered and I couldn't tell what I felt
I was unrecognizable to myself
I saw my reflection in a window
I didn't know my own face
Oh brother are you gonna leave me
Wastin' away
On the streets of Philadelphia

I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone
I heard voices of friends vanished and gone
At night I could hear the blood in my veins

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 drive 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

Hey there mister can you tell me what happened to the seeds I've sown
Can you give me a reason sir as to why they've never grown
They've just blown around from town to town
Till they're back out on these fields
Where they fall from my hand
Back into the dirt of this hard land
Now me and my sister from Germantown we did ride
We made our bed sir from the rock on the mountainside

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

Don't 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

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

CHORUS:
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