NEBRASKA
I saw her standin' on her front lawn just twirlin' her
baton
Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people
died
From the town of Lincoln Nebraska with a sawed off .410
on my lap
Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in
my path
I can't say that I'm sorry for the things that we done
At least for a little while sir me and her we had us some
fun
The jury brought in a guilty verdict and the judge he
sentenced me to death
Midnight in a prison storeroom with leather straps across
my chest
Sheriff when the man pulls that switch sir and snaps my
poor head back
You make sure my pretty baby is sittin' right there on my
lap
They declared me unfit to live said into that great void
my soul'd be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world
ATLANTIC CITY
Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night
now they blew up his house too
Down on the boardwalk they're gettin' ready for a fight
gonna see what them racket boys can do
Now there's trouble busin' in from outta state and the
D.A. can't get no relief
Gonna be a rumble out on the promenade and the gamblin'
commission's hangin' on by the skin of its teeth
(Chorus)
Well now 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 Atlantic City
Well I got a job and tried to put my money away
But I got debts that no honest man can pay
So I drew what I had from the Central Trust
And I bought us two tickets on that Coast City bus
(Chorus)
Now 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
Now I been lookin' for a job but it's hard to find
Down here it's just winners and losers and don't get
caught on the wrong side of that line
Well I'm tired of comin' out on the losin' end
So honey last night I met this guy and I'm gonna do a
little favor for him
Well I guess everything dies baby that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
Put your hair up nice and set up pretty
and meet me tonight in Atlantic City
Meet me tonight in Atlantic City
Meet me tonight in Atlantic City
MANSION ON THE HILL
There's a place out on the
edge of town sir
Risin' above the factories and the fields
Now ever since I was a child I can remember that mansion
on the hill
In the day you can see the children playing
On the road that leads to those gates of hardened steel
Steel gates that completely surround sir the mansion on
the hill
At night my daddy'd take me and we'd ride through the
streets of a town so silent and still
Park on a back road along the highway side
Look up at that mansion on the hill
In the summer all the lights would shine there'd be music playin' people
laughin' all the time
Me and my sister we'd hide out in the tall corn fields
Sit and listen to the mansion on the hill
Tonight down here in Linden Town I watch the cars rushin'
by home from the mill
There's a beautiful full moon rising above the mansion on
the hill
JOHNNY 99
Well they closed down the auto plant in Mahwah late that
month
Ralph went out lookin' for a job but he couldn't find
none
He came home too drunk from mixin'Tanqueray and wine
He got a gun shot a night clerk now they call'm Johnny 99
Down in the part of town where when you hit a red light
you don't stop
Johnny's wavin' his gun around and threatenin' to blow
his top
When an off duty cop snuck up on him from behind
Out in front of the Club Tip Top they slapped the cuffs
on Johnny 99
Well the city supplied a public defender but the judge
was Mean John Brown
He came into the courtroom and stared young Johnny down
Well the evidence is clear gonna let the sentence son fit
the crime
Prison for 98 and a year and we'll call it even Johnny 99
A fistfight broke out in the courtroom they had to drag
Johnny's girl away
His mama stood up and shouted "Judge don't take my
boy this way"
Well son you got a statement you'd like to make
Before the bailiff comes to forever take you away
Now judge judge I had debts no honest man could pay
The bank was holdin' my mortgage and they was takin' my
house away
Now I ain't sayin' that makes me an innocent man
But it was more 'n all this that put that gun in my hand
Well your honor I do believe I'd be better off dead
And if you can take a man's life for the thoughts that's
in his head
Then won't you sit back in that chair and think it over
judge one more time
And let 'em shave off my hair and put me on that killin'
line
HIGHWAY PATROLMAN
My name is Joe Roberts I
work for the state
I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8
I always done an honest job as honest as I could
I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain't no good
Now ever since we was young kids it's been the same come
down
I get a call over the radio Franky's in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away
But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other
way
Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better
than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played
"Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no
good
Well Franky went in the army back in 1965 I got a farm deferment, settled down, took Maria for my wife
But them wheat prices kept on droppin' till it was like
we were gettin' robbed
Franky came home in `68, and me, I took this job
Yea we're laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than
blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played
"Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin', teach him how to walk
that line
Man turns his back on his family he ain't no friend of
mine
Well the night was like any other, I got a call `bout
quarter to nine
There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line
There was a kid lyin' on the floor lookin' bad bleedin'
hard from his head there was a girl cryin' at a table and
it was Frank, they said
Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the
lights
Well I must of done one hundred and ten through Michigan
county that night
It was out at the crossroads, down round Willow bank
Seen a Buick with Ohio plates behind the wheel was Frank
Well I chased him through them county roads till a sign
said Canadian border five miles from here
I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his
taillights disappear
Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin'
Nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played
"Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ani't no
good
STATE TROOPER
New Jersey Turnpike
ridin'
on a wet night 'neath the refinery's glow, out where the
great black rivers flow
License, registration, I ain't got none but I got a clear
conscience
'Bout the things that I done
Mister state trooper, please don't stop me
Please don't stop me, please don't stop me
Maybe you got a kid, maybe you got a pretty wife the only
thing that I got's been both'rin' me my whole life
Mister state trooper, please don't stop me
Please don't stop me, please don't stop me
In the wee wee hours your mind gets hazy, radio relay
towers lead me to my baby
Radio's jammed up with talk show stations
It's just talk, talk, talk, talk, till you lose your
patience
Mister state trooper, please don't stop me
Hey, somebody out there, listen to my last prayer
Hiho silver-o, deliver me from nowhere
USED CARS
My little sister's in the
front seat with an ice cream cone
My ma's in the black seat sittin' all alone
As my pa steers her slow out of the lot for a test drive
down Michigan Avenue
Now, my ma, she fingers her wedding band
And watches the salesman stare at my old man's hands
He's tellin' us all 'bout the break he'd give us if he could, but he just can't
Well if I could, I swear I know just what I'd do
Now, mister, the day the lottery I win I ain't ever gonna
ride in no used car again
Now, the neighbors come from near and far
As we pull up in our brand new used car
I wish he'd just hit the gas and let out a cry and tell 'em all they can kiss our asses goodbye
My dad, he sweats the same job from mornin' to morn
Me, I walk home on the same dirty streets where I was
born
Up the block I can hear my little sister in the front
seat blowin' that horn
The sounds echoin' all down Michigan Avenue
Now, mister, the day my numbers comes in I ain't ever
gonna ride in no used car again
OPEN ALL NIGHT
Well, I had the
carburetor, baby, cleaned and checked with her line blown
out she's hummin' like a turbojet
Propped her up in the backyard on concrete blocks for a
new clutch plate and a new set of shocks
Took her down to the carwash, check the plugs and points
Well, I'm goin' out tonight. I'm gonna rock that joint
Early north Jersey industrial skyline I'm a all-set cobra
jet creepin' through the nighttime
Gotta find a gas station, gotta find a payphone this
turnpike sure is spooky at night when you're all alone
Gotta hit the gas, baby. I'm running late, this New
Jersey in the mornin' like a lunar landscape
Now, the boss don't dig me, so he put me on the
nightshift
It's an all night run to get back to where my baby lives
In the wee wee hours your mind gets hazy radio relay towers, won't you lead me to my baby?
Underneath the overpass, trooper hits his party light
switch
Goodnight good luck one two power shift
I met Wanda when she was employed behind the counter at
route 60 Bob's Big Boy Fried Chicken on the front seat,
she's sittin' in my lap
We're wipin' our fingers on a Texaco roadmap
I remember Wanda up on scrap metal hill with them big
brown eyes that make your heart stand still
Well, at five a.m., oil pressure's sinkin' fast
I make a pit stop, wipe the windshield, check the gas
Gotta call my baby on the telephone
Let her know that her daddy's comin' on home
Sit tight, little mama, I'm comin' `round I got three
more hours, but I'm coverin' ground
Your eyes get itchy in the wee wee hours sun's just a red
ball risin' over them refinery towers
Radio's jammed up with gospel stations lost souls callin'
long distance salvation
Hey, mister deejay, woncha hear my last prayer hey, ho, rock'n'roll, deliver me from
nowhere
MY FATHER'S HOUSE
Last night I dreamed that
I was a child out where the pines grow wild and tall
I was trying to make it home through the forest before
the darkness falls
I heard the wind rustling through the trees and ghostly
voices rose from the fields
I ran with my heart pounding down that broken path
With the devil snappin' at my heels
I broke through the trees, and there in the night
My father's house stood shining hard and bright the
branches and brambles tore my clothes and scratched my
arms
But I ran till I fell, shaking in his arms
I awoke and I imagined the hard things that pulled us
apart
Will never again, sir, tear us from each other's hearts
I got dressed, and to that house I did ride from out on
the road, I could see its windows shining in light
I walked up the steps and stood on the porch a woman I
didn't recognize came and spoke to me through a chained
door
I told her my story, and who I'd come for
She said "I'm sorry, son, but no one by that name
lives here anymore"
My father's house shines hard and bright it stands like a
beacon calling me in the night
Calling and calling, so cold and alone
Shining `cross this dark highway where our sins lie
unatoned
REASON TO BELIEVE
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 find some reason to believe
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