Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
Lights out tonight,
Trouble in the heartland,
Got a head-on collision,
Smashin' in my guts, man,
I'm caught in a crossfire,
That I don't understand,
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
Talk about a dream,
Try to make it real
You wake up in the night
With a fear so real,
Spend your life waiting,
For a moment that just don't come,
Well, don't waste your time waiting,
(Chorus)
Badlands, you gotta live it every day,
Let the broken hearts stand
As the price you've gotta pay,
We'll keep pushin' till it's understood,
And these badlands start treating us
good
Workin' in the field
Till you get your back burned,
Workin' `neath the wheels
Till you get your facts learned,
Baby, I got my facts
Learned real good right now,
Poor man wanna be rich,
Rich man wanna be king,
And a king ain't satisfied,
Till he rules everything,
I wanna go out tonight,
I wanna find out what I got
I believe in the love that you gave me,
I believe in the hope that can save me,
I believe in the faith
And I pray, that some day it may raise me,
Above these badlands
(Chorus)
For the ones who had a notion,
A notion deep inside,
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
I wanna find one face that ain't looking
through me
I wanna find one place,
I wanna spit in the face of these badlands
(Chorus)
In the summer that I was baptized,
My father held me to his side,
As they put me to the water,
He said how on that day I cried.
We were prisoners of love, a love in
chains,
He was standin' in the door, I was
standin' in the rain,
With the same hot blood burning in our
veins,
Adam raised a Cain.
All of the old faces,
Ask you why you're back,
They fit you with position,
And the keys to your daddy's Cadillac,
In the darkness of your room,
Your mother calls you by your true name,
You remember the faces, the places, the
names,
You know it's never over, it's relentless
as the rain,
Adam raised a Cain.
In the Bible Cain slew Abel
And East of Eden he was cast
You're born into this life paying,
For the sins of somebody else's past,
Daddy worked his whole life, for nothing
but the pain,
Now he walks these empty rooms,
looking for something to blame,
You inherit the sins, you inherit the
flames,
Adam raised a Cain.
Lost but not forgotten, from the dark heart
of a dream,
Adam raised a Cain.
I'm riding down Kingsley,
Figuring I'll get a drink
Turn the radio up loud,
So I don't have to think,
I take her to the floor,
Looking for a moment when the world
seems right,
And I tear into the guts,
Of something in the night.
You're born with nothing,
And better off that way,
Soon as you've got something they send
Someone to try and take it away,
You can ride this road 'till dawn,
Without another human being in sight,
Just kids wasted on
Something in the night.
Nothing is forgotten or forgiven,
when it's your last time around,
I got stuff running around 'round my head
That I just can't live down.
When we found the things we loved,
They were crushed and dying in the dirt.
We tried to pick up the pieces,
And get away without getting hurt,
But they caught us at the state line,
And burned our cars in one last fight,
And left us running burned and blind,
Chasing something in the night.
In Candy's room there are pictures of her
heroes on the wall,
But to get to Candy's room, you gotta
walk the darkness of Candy's hall,
Strangers from the city, call my baby's
number and they bring her toys,
When I come knocking, she smiles
pretty, she knows I wanna be Candy's
boy
There's a sadness hidden in that pretty
face, a sadness all her own, from which
no man can keep Candy safe.
We kiss, my heart's pumpin' to my brain
The blood rushes in my veins, when I
touch Candy's lips,
We go driving driving deep into the night,
I go driving deep into the light, in Candy's
eyes.
She says, Baby if you wanna be wild,
You got a lot to learn, close your eyes,
Let them melt, let them fire,
Let them burn
Cause in the darkness, there'll be hidden
worlds that shine,
When I hold Candy close she makes these
hidden worlds mine,
She has fancy clothes and diamond
rings
She has men who give her anything she
wants, but they don't see,
That what she wants is me,
Oh, and I want her so,
I'll never let her go, no, no, no,
She knows that I'd give
All that I got to give,
All that I want, all that I live,
To make Candy mine
Tonight
I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor
She's waiting tonight down in the parking
lot
Outside the Seven-Eleven store
Me and my partner Sonny built her
straight out of scratch
And he rides with me from town to town
We only run for the money, got no strings
attached
We shut `em up and then we shut `em
down
Tonight, tonight the strip's just right
I wanna blow `em off in my first heat
Summer's here and the time is right
For racin' in the street
We take all the action we can meet
And we cover all the northeast state
When the strip shuts down we run `em in
the street
From the fire roads to the interstate
Some guys they just give up living
And start dying little by little, piece by
piece,
Some guys come home from work and
wash up,
And go racin' in the street.
Tonight, tonight the strip's just right
I wanna blow `em all out of their seats
Calling out around the world, we're going
racin' in the street.
I met her on the strip three years ago
In a Camaro with this dude from L.A.
I blew that Camaro off my back,
And drove that little girl away,
But now there's wrinkles around my
baby's eyes
And she cries herself to sleep at night
When I come home the house is dark
She sighs "Baby did you make it all
right,"
She sits on the porch of her Daddy's
house
But all her pretty dreams are torn,
She stares off alone into the night
With the eyes of one who hates for just
being born
For all the shut down strangers and hot
rod angels,
Rumbling through this promised land
Tonight my baby and me, we're gonna
ride to the sea
And wash these sins off our hands.
Tonight, tonight the highway's bright
Out of our way, mister you best keep
`Cause summer's here and the time is
right
For racin' in the street
On a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah
desert
I pick up my money and head back into
town
Driving cross the Waynesboro county
line
I got the radio on and I'm just killing time
Working all day in my daddy's garage
Driving all night chasing some mirage
Pretty soon little girl I'm gonna take
charge.
(Chorus)
The dogs on Main Street howl,
`Cause they understand,
If I could take one moment into my hands
Mister, I ain't a boy, no, I'm a man,
And I believe in a promised land.
I've done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work
each day
But your eyes go blind and your blood
runs cold
Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to
explode
Explode and tear this town apart
Take a knife and cut this pain from my
heart
Find somebody itching for something to
start
(Chorus)
There's a dark cloud rising from the
desert floor
I packed my bags and I'm heading
straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything
down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your
heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing
but lost and brokenhearted
(Chorus)
I believe in a promised land...
Early in the morning factory whistle
blows,
Man rises from bed and puts on his
clothes,
Man takes his lunch, walks out in the
morning light,
It's the working, the working, just the
working life.
Through the mansions of fear, through
the mansions of pain,
I see my daddy walking through them
factory gates in the rain,
Factory takes his hearing, factory gives
him life,
The working, the working, just the
working life.
End of the day, factory whistle cries,
Men walk through these gates with death
in their eyes,
And you just better believe, boy,
Somebody's gonna get hurt tonight,
It's the working, the working, just the
working life.
When the nigth's quiet and you don't care
anymore,
And your eyes are tired and there's someone at your door
And you realize you wanna let go
And the weak lies and the cold walls you
embrace
Eat at your insides and leave you face to
face with
Streets of fire
I'm wandering, a loser down these tracks
I'm dying, but girl I can't go back
'Cause in the darkness I hear somebody
call my name
And when you realize how they tricked
you this time
And it's all lies but I'm strung out on the
wire
In these streets of fire
I live now, only with strangers
I talk to only strangers
I walk with angels that have no place
Streets of fire
I've been working real hard, trying to get
my hands clean,
Tonight we'll drive that dusty road from
Monroe to Angeline,
To buy you a gold ring and pretty dress of
blue,
Baby just one kiss will get these things for
you,
A kiss to seal our fate tonight,
A kiss to prove it all night.
(Chorus)
Prove it all night,
Girl there's nothing else that we can do,
So prove it all night, prove it all night,
And girl I'll prove it all night for you.
Everybody's got a hunger, a hunger they
can't resist,
There's so much that you want, you
deserve much more than this,
But if dreams came true, oh, wouldn't that
be nice,
But this ain't no dream we're living
through tonight,
Girl, you want it, you take it, you pay the
price.
(Chorus)
Prove it all night, prove it all night girl and
call the bluff,
Prove it all night, prove it all night and girl,
I prove it all night for your love.
Baby, tie your hair back in a long white
bow,
Meet me in the fields out behind the
dynamo,
You hear the voices telling you not to go,
They made their choices and they'll
never know,
What it means to steal, to cheat, to lie,
What it's like to live and die.
(Chorus)
To prove it all night...
They're still racing out at the Trestles,
But that blood it never burned in her
veins,
Now I hear she's got a house up in
Fairview,
And a style she's trying to maintain.
Well, if she wants to see me,
You can tell her that I'm easily found,
Tell her there's a spot out `neath Abram's
Bridge,
And tell her, there's a darkness on the
edge of town.
Everybody's got a secret, Sonny,
Something that they just can't face,
Some folks spend their whole lives trying
to keep it,
They carry it with them every step that
they take.
Till some day they just cut it loose
Cut it loose or let it drag `em down,
Where no one asks any questions,
Or looks too long in your face,
In the darkness on the edge of town.
Some folks are born into a good life,
Other folks get it anyway, anyhow,
I lost my money and I lost my wife,
Them things don't seem to matter much
to me now.
Tonight I'll be on that hill `cause I can't
stop,
I'll be on that hill with everything I got,
Lives on the line where dreams are found
and lost,
I'll be there on time and I'll pay the cost,
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town.
All songs © 1978 Bruce Springateen (ASCAP)
All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
PRODUCED BY JON LANOAU
AND BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Clarence Clemons, saxophone and percussion
Danny Federici, organ
Roy Bittan, piano
Bruce Springsteen, vocals, lead guitar and harmonica
Garry Tallent, bass
Steve Van Zandt, guitar
Max Weinberg, drums
Productjon Assistance: Stave Van Zandt
Recorded by Jimmy Iovine
Mixed by Charles Plotkin and Jimmy Iovine
Assistant Engineer: Thom Panunzio
Recorded and mixed at the
Record Plant, N.Y.C.
Mastered by Mike Reese,
Mastering Lab, L.A., Calif
Photography: Frank Stefanko
Thanks to Mike Batlan,
Bob Chirmside, Doug Sutphin
Thanks to Charlea Plotkin
for his asaiatance in the completion
of this album
© all right reserved