Having lost a friend around the time that this came out this song affected me greatly and still does half a century later. The third verse makes me well up every time
The Needle & The Damage Done - Neil Young
I caught you knockin' at my cellar door
I love you, baby, can I have some more?
Ooh, ooh, the damage done
I hit the city and I lost my band
I watched the needle take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done
I sing the song because I love the man
I know that some of you don't understand
Milk-blood to keep from running out
I've seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie's like a settin' sun
His Life for Mine - Performed by The Talley Trio - Written by Rebecca J. Peck:
His heart was broken, mine was mended
He became sin, now I am clean.
The cross he carried bore my burden.
The nails that held him set me free.
Chorus:
His life for mine, his life for mine
How could it ever be?
That he would die, God's son would die
To save a wretch like me
What love divine, he gave his life for mine.
His scars of suffering brought me healing
He spilled his blood to fill my soul.
His crown of thorns made me royalty
His sorrow gave me joy untold
Chorus
Bridge:
He was despised and rejected, stripped of his garments and oppressed
I am loved and accepted and I wear a robe of righteousness
[Verse 2]
I need to wash myself again
To hide all the dirt and pain
'Cause I'd be scared that there's nothing underneath
And who are my real friends?
Have they all got the bends?
Am I really sinking this low?
[Chorus]
My baby's got the bends, oh no
We don't have any real friends
No, no, no
One of the most misappropriated songs in history I guess. The chorus led those who didn't understand the quite clear message being put forward by Bruce to think that it was a rousing anthem about the States. Reagan use it much to the annoyance of Springsteen. It's also been used by other right wing politicians who does understand what the song is about.
Although the album version is fine, if you get the chance, listen to the acoustic version on the compilation album Tracks. Puts the song into perspective as a great protest song.
Springsteen said of the song, "(it's) about a working-class man in the midst of a spiritual crisis, in which man is left lost… It's like he has nothing left to tie him into society anymore. He's isolated from the government. Isolated from his family…to the point where nothing makes sense."
Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just coverin' up
Born in the U.S.A
I was born in the U.S.A
I was born in the U.S.A
Born in the U.S.A
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A
I was born in the U.S.A
I was born in the U.S.A
I was born in the U.S.A
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says, "Son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said, "Son, don't you understand"
I had a brother at Khe Sanh
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go
Born in the U.S.A
I was born in the U.S.A. now
Born in the U.S.A
I'm a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A. now
Born in the U.S.A
Born in the U.S.A
Born in the U.S.A
I'm a cool rockin' Daddy in the U.S.A. now
The Broken Ones - Performed By The Talley Trio - Written By Jerry Salley, JB Rudd & Carl Vipperman
Maggie came home one day with a raggedy, Raggedy Ann.
She said " Mama, look what I found in the neighbors garbage can."
had a missing left arm, and a right button eye hanging by a thread
She carried it gently up to her room and laid it on her bed
with her other dolls.
Chorus: "She loves the broken ones, the ones that need a little patchin' up
She see's the diamond in the rough and makes it shine like new
It really doesn't take that much, a willing heart and a tender touch
If everybody loved like she does, there'd be a lot less broken ones."
Twenty years later at a shelter on Eighteenth Avenue
A seventeen year old girl shows up all black and blue
needle tracks in her left arm, almost too week to stand,
She says,"I'm lost and I need help", as Maggie takes her hand
And says, "Come on in!"
Repeat Chorus
If you call her and angel, she'd be quick to say to you
She's just doing what the one who died for her would do
love the broken ones, the ones that need a little patchin' up
See the diamond in the rough and make it shine like new
It really doesn't take that much, a willing heart and a tender touch
If everybody loved like He does, there'd be a lot less broken ones
If everybody loved like He does, there's be a lot less broken ones.
I wake up tired and I wake up pissed
Wonder how I ended up like this
I wonder why things happen like they do
But I don't wonder long 'cause I got a show to do
I'm sick at my stomach from the A.Z.T
Broke at my bank 'cause that shit ain't free
But I'm here to stay, at least another week or two
And I can't die now 'cause I got another show to do
Don't give me no pity, don't give me no grief
Wait' 'til I die for sympathy
Just help me with this amp and a guitar or two
I can't die now 'cause I got another show to do
Don't give me no preachin' no self servin'
I ain't no angel but nobody's deserving
I can dance on my own grave, thank you!
But I can't die now 'cause I got another show
Some people keep saying I can't last long
But I got my bands I got my songs
Liquor, beer, and nicotine to help me along
And I'm drunk and stubborn as they come
Chain smoking, guitar picking, 'til I'm gone, gone, gone, gone
I ain't got no political agenda
Ain't got no message for the youth of America
'Cept "Wear a rubber and be careful who you screw"
And come see me next Friday 'cause I got another show
Some people stop living long before they die
Work a dead end job just to scrape on by
But I keep living just to bend that note in two
And I can't die now 'cause I got another show
From the album
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Gangstabilly by Drive-By Truckers _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
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