Bruce Springsteen

Released: April 13, 1999

Songwriter: Bruce Springsteen

Producer: Bruce Springsteen

[Verse]
Johnny works in a factory
And Billy works downtown
Terry works in a rock and roll band
Looking for that million dollar sound

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

I followed that dream
Just like those guys do up on the screen
And 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 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

All my life, I fought this fight
The fight that no man can ever win
Every day it just gets harder to live
The dream I'm believing in

[Chorus]
Thunder Road
Oh baby, you were so right
Thunder Road
There's something dying down on the highway tonight

[Verse]
I won big once and I hit the coast
Oh, 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

[Chorus]
Thunder Road
Is for the lost lovers and all the fixed games
Thunder Road
For the tires rushing by in the rain
Thunder Road
Me and Billy we'd always sing
Thunder Road
We were gonna take it all and throw it all away

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.

more tracks from the album

The Promise

From the albums

18 Tracks (1999)
The Promise (2010)

Bruce Springsteen popular songs

The PromiseBruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen

The Promise