FOR YOU

Live 29 Dec 1980 version

Ah-one, two, three, four!

Well, princess cards she sends me with her regards
Her barroom eyes shine vacancy, to see her you gotta look hard
I was wounded deep in battle, but I stood stuffed like some soldier undaunted
To her Cheshire smile I'd stand on file, she's all I ever wanted
But you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts
Well baby, get your carpetbaggers off my back
You wouldn't even give me time to cover my tracks
You said, "Here's your mirror and your ball and jacks"
But they ain't what I came for, and I'm sure you see that too

I came for you, for you, I came for you, you did not need my urgency
For you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
And your cloud line urges me, my electric surges free

Crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
Reveal yourself now to me girl while you got the strength to speak
'Cause they're waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks
Well I could give it all to you here if only you would ask
Now don't call for your surgeon, even he says it's too late
It's not your lungs this time, it's your heart that holds your fate
Don't give me my money, honey, I don't want it back
You and your pony face and your union jack
Well you can take that local joker and teach him how to act
You know I was never that way even when I really cracked
Didn't you think I knew that you were born with the power of a locomotive
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?
Your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
You could laugh and cry in a single sound
Yeah, oh oh yeah

Your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the god

You were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
Remember how I poured salt on your tongue and hung just out of reach
And the band, they played the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
Yeah, that ragged, jagged melody still clings to me like a leech
Now that medal you wore on your chest always got in the way
You were like a little girl with a trophy so soft to buy her way
We were both hitchhiking but you had your ears tuned to the roar
Of some metal-tempered engine on an alien distant shore
So you left to find a better reason than the one we were living for
And it ain't that nursery mouth that I came back for
And it ain't the way that you're stretched out on the floor
Because I've broken all your windows, rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores?
You should know that's true

I came for you, for you, I came for you, you did not need my urgency
For you, for you, I came for you, your life was one long emergency
And your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free
I came for you, for you, I came for you
For you, for you, I came for you
For you, for you, I came for you

Info

The above lyrics are for the live 29 Dec 1980 performance of FOR YOU at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY, during The River Tour. The song was played in its full-band album-style arrangement.

The 29 Dec 1980 Show

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band rounded up the 1980 leg of The River Tour with three concerts at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, on 28, 29, and 31 Dec 1980. The three shows were recorded live with the Record Plant Remote Truck by Toby Scott, assisted by David Bianco and Jim Scott, and later became one of the main sources for the Live/1975-85 box set which includes six recordings from these shows. Four additional recordings were released as B-sides and on compilation albums.

Promotional poster for the 29 Dec 1980 show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY
(Taken from Brucebase)

Ticket stub for the 29 Dec 1980 show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY
(Taken from Brucebase)

In July 2019 the complete 29 Dec 1980 concert was officially released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net (see the "Official Live Downloads" section below for more details). The 24-track/30-IPS reel-to-reel master tapes were transferred and restored by Jamie Howarth in Spring 2019 using the Plangent Process. The audio was mixed by Jon Altschiller, with additional engineering by Danielle Warman, and mastered by Jon Altschiller.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Nassau Coliseum, New York 12/29/80

Credits / References

Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.

Available Versions

List of available versions of FOR YOU on this website:

Page last updated: 11 Jan 2012