Bruce Springsteen

Released: September 30, 1982

Songwriter: Bruce Springsteen

Producer: Bruce Springsteen

[Verse 1]
Seen a man standing over a dead dog
By a highway in a ditch
He's looking down kinda puzzled
Poking that dog with a stick
Got his car door flung open
He's standing out on Highway 31
Like if he stood there long enough
That dog'd get up and run

[Refrain]
Struck me kinda funny
Seemed kinda funny, sir, to me
Still, at the end of every hard day
People find some reason to believe

[Verse 2]
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

[Refrain]
Struck me kinda funny
Funny, yeah, indeed
How at the end of every hard-earned day
People find some reason to believe

[Harmonica]

[Verse 3]
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 whitewashed shotgun shack
An old man passes away
Take the body to the graveyard
Over him, they pray

[Refrain]
Lord, won't you tell us
Tell us—what does it mean?
At the end of every hard-earned day
People find some reason to believe

[Verse 4]
Congregation gathers
Down by the riverside
Preacher stands with a bible
Groom stands waiting for his bride
Congregation gone and the sun sets
Behind a weeping willow tree
Groom stands alone and watches the river rush on
So effortlessly

[Refrain]
Wondering
Where can his baby be
Still, at the end of every hard-earned day
People find some reason to believe

Bruce Springsteen is a rock ‘n’ roll icon from the great state of New Jersey. Nicknamed “The Boss,” he’s known for spirited sax-powered anthems about working-class people making their way in the world. Backed by the trusty E Street Band, he’s sold more than 120 million records, won numerous awards (including 20 Grammys and an Oscar), sold out stadiums around the globe, and earned a place alongside his teenage heroes in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Although he’s a living legend who ranks among the most important artists in rock history, Springsteen wasn’t an overnight success. Around the time of his first album, 1973’s Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., he was dismissed as just another “new Dylan"—some scruffy folk singer with a decent vocabulary looking to follow in Bob’s footsteps. In the decade that followed, Springsteen proved himself to be much more.

His breakthrough came with his third album, 1975’s Born to Run. The record hit No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and landed the singer-songwriter on the cover of both Time and Newsweek. Bruce nabbed his first chart-topping album five years later with The River, and in 1984, he went global with Born in the U.S.A., a critical and commercial smash that produced seven Top 10 singles.

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