- Home
-
Lyrics
-
- Collection
-
Bootlegs
-
Intro / Wanted list
-
- Links
- Forum
-
-
-
Live 04 Oct 2002 version
[Spoken (the daughter of Lenny Zakim):] [...] Thank you so much for being here. It means so much to our family that you came to share this magical day with us.
[Spoken (the son of Lenny Zakim:] We're proud to present our dad's music hero, Bruce Springsteen (cheers).
[Spoken (Bruce Springsteen):] Thank you uh... Shari, Deena, and Josh, thank you. Oh, the pick (picks the guitar pick from his pocket) And uh... I got it, I got it. Joyce, thank you for your kind words, uh, this was a much bigger bridge than I was expecting, I wasn't expecting a bridge this big. I would've brought the whole or something, but uh... uh... met Lenny, Jon Landau (who was among the attendees) and... manager who's from this neck of the woods, came up to me one night, said "There's a guy coming tonight... this is a guy that's out there on the frontlines doing what you sing about". And that was Lenny Zakim. And he came back after the show and we were talking a little bit and he pulled something out, said "look, take, take a look at this". And it was a picture of himself meeting the Pope and he said "Hey but look, look, look", and I look a little closer and I realize he has a hat on that says "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band" (chuckles). And uh... I said "That's pretty cool", you know (chuckles). So my hat has been in the presence of the Pope, and uh, thanks to Lenny. But uh... you know, he was uh... I met him, you know, I knew him a little bit during the last year of his life. He was one of those people whose intensity, inner spirit you could feel even when he was very ill. And uh... I guess, you know, we honor his memory obviously not with this beautiful bridge, very lovely, but by continuing on in his fight for social justice, sort of. And I'm gonna do this for Lenny and Lenny's family and... here we go. Whoa! Bring the harp, yeah, alright.
The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
That's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone anymore
Don't you run back inside, darling you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright
And that's alright with me
Hey you can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain for a savior to rise from these streets
Well I'm no hero, that's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl, 's beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair
The night's busting open, these two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back, heaven's waiting down on the tracks
Oh oh come take my hand
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road, Thunder Road
It's lying out there like a killer in the sun
I know it's late but we can make it if we run
Oh oh oh Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold, Thunder Road
Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back if you're ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride it ain't free
I know you're lonely, these words that I ain't spoken
But tonight we'll be free, all the promises will be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
In the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
When you get to the porch they're gone on the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers, hey we're pulling outta here to win
[Spoken (Bruce Springsteen):] We love you and we miss you Lenny.
The above lyrics are for the 04 Oct 2002 performance of THUNDER ROAD at Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge in Boston, MA, during the bridge opening ceremony. The song was played in a solo acoustic arrangement.
The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge was named after both the late Boston religious and civil rights leader Leonard P. "Lenny" Zakim and the Battle of Bunker Hill. Zakim, who was a long time Bruce Springsteen fan, died in 1999 after a five-year battle with cancer of the bone marrow. The "Leonard P. Zakim-Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge" is built across the Charles River in Boston and is one of the widest cable-stayed bridges in the world.
A formal ceremony to open the bridge was held at the bridge on 04 Oct 2002 and was broadcast live on TV. Bruce Springsteen gave a speech and performed a solo acoustic THUNDER ROAD on guitar and harmonica. He said, "We honor Lenny by continuing his fight for social justice" (read the speech above). After the show, widow Joyce Zakim came backstage and showed Springsteen a picture her husband had taken posing with the pope (also mentioned in the speech above). In the photo, Zakim was wearing a hat that said "Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band."
List of available versions of THUNDER ROAD on this website:
THUNDER ROAD [Album version]