My Hometown -- Bruce Springsteen

I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
I'd sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He'd tousle my hair and say son take a good look around this is your hometown
This is your hometown  This is your hometown
  
In '65 tension was running high at my high school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white  There was nothing you could do  
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night in the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed in a shotgun blast  Troubled times had come to my hometown
My hometown  My hometown

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back to your hometown
Your hometown  Your hometown

Last night me and Kate we laid in bed  talking about getting out
Packing up our bags maybe heading south  I'm thirty-five we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel and said son take a good look around
This is your hometown                                                                                  (sing365)


The song’s lyrics begin with the speaker’s memories of his father instilling pride in the family’s hometown. While it first appears that the song will be a nostalgic look at the speaker’s childhood, the song then goes on to describe the racial violence and economic depression that the speaker witnessed as an adolescent and middle-aged man. The song concludes with the speaker’s reluctant proclamation that he plans to move his family out of the town.                                                    (Wikipedia)  



               

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