The Promise (Studio Outtake - 1999)

Johny works in a factory
Billy works downtown
Terry works in a rock and roll band
Looking for that million dollar sound

I got a job down in Darlington
Some nights I don't go
Some nights I go to the drive-in
And some nights I stay home

I followed that dream just like those guys do way up on the screen
Drove my Challenger down Route 9 through the dead ends and all the bad scenes
And the promise was broken
Cashed in a few of my dreams

Well I built that Challenger by myself
But I needed money and so I sold it
Lived a secret I should've kept to myself
But I got drunk one night and I told it

All my life, I fought that fight
The fight that you can't win
Every day it just gets harder to live
A dream you're believing in

Thunder Road
Baby, you were so right
Thunder Road
Something dying down on the highway tonight

Well I won big once and I hit the coast
Yeah, but I paid the cost
Inside I felt like I was carrying broken spirits
Of all the other ones who lost

The promise is broken, you go on living
It steals something from down in your soul
And when the truth is spoken and it don't make no difference
Something in your heart goes cold

I followed that dream through the southwestern tracks
That dead ends in the two-bit bars
The promise was broken, I was far away from home
Sleeping in the back seat of a borrowed car

Thunder Road is for the lost lovers and all the fixed games
Thunder Road is for the tires rushing by in the rain
Thunder Road, me and Billy we'd always sing
Thunder Road, take it all and throw it all away