Live 17 Dec 2000 version
Well, princess cards she sends me with her regards
Her barroom eyes shine vacancy, yeah, 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
Honey, 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, baby, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
For you, for you, baby, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
Your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free
Crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
Yeah, reveal yourself now to me girl while you got the strength to speak
'Cause they're waiting for you at Bellevue, yeah, with their oxygen masks
Yeah but I could give it all to you now if only you would ask
Yeah, don't call for your surgeon, even he says it's too late
It ain't your lungs this time, baby, 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 cracked
But 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
Well, 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
Now, you were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
Yeah, remember how I poured salt on your tongue and I hung just out of reach
Yeah, the band, they played the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
Still that ragged, jagged melody still clings to me like a leech, ah
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 hitchhikers 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's not the way that you're stretched out on the floor
'Cause I've broken all your windows and I rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores?
And you should know it's true
I came for you, for you, baby, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, baby, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
And my cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free
I came for you, for you, baby, I came for you
For you, for you, baby, I came for you
For you, for you, honey, I came for you
The above lyrics are for the live 17 Dec 2000 performance of FOR YOU at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ, during the first of the two 2000 Asbury Park holiday shows. The song was played in a piano arrangement, with Springsteen backed by the Max Weinberg 7, plus the Redheaded Women (Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell, and Lisa Lowell) who provided light backing vocals (highlighted in bold above).
Bruce Springsteen performed two Asbury Park holiday shows in 2000 (17 and 18 December). These concerts were billed as "Bruce Springsteen with The Max Weinberg 7 and Friends", with The Max Weinberg 7 serving as the house band, and Springsteen bringing guests on and off the stage throughout the shows.
Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.
List of available versions of FOR YOU on this website:
FOR YOU [Album version]