The Promise (Live from The Carousel, Asbury Park, NJ - December 2010)

Johnny works in a factory
And Billy works downtown
Terry works in a rock and roll band
Looking for a million-dollar sound
I got a job down in Darlington
Hey, but some nights I don't go
Some nights I go to the drive-in
And some nights I stay home

I follow that dream just like those guys do
Way up on the screen
I drove a Challenger down Route 9
Through the dead ends and all the bad scenes
And when the promise was broken
I cashed in a few of my own dreams

Well now, I built that Challenger by myself
But I needed money and so I sold it
I lived a secret I shoulda kept to myself
But I got drunk one night and I told it
And all my life, I fought this fight
The fight that no man can ever win
Every day, it just gets harder to live
This dream I'm believing in

Thunder Road
Ah, baby, you were so right
Thunder Road
There's somethin' dyin' down on the highway tonight

Well, I won big once and I hit the coast
Hey, but somehow I paid the big cost
Inside I felt like I was carrying the broken spirits
Of all the other ones who lost
When the promise is broken, you go on living
But it steals something from down in your soul
Like when the truth is spoken and it don't make no difference
Something in your heart turns cold

Thunder Road
It's one for the lost lovers and all the fixed games
Thunder Road
Here's one for the tires rushing by in the rain
Thunder Road
Remember me and Billy, we'd always say
Thunder Road
We were gonna take it all, then throw it all away