JACKSON CAGE

Driving home she grabs something to eat
Turns a corner and drives down her street
Into a row of houses she just melts away
Like the scenery in another man's play*
Into a house where the blinds are closed
To keep from seeing things she don't wanna know
She pulls the blinds and looks out on the street
The cool of the night takes the edge off the heat

In the Jackson Cage
Down in the Jackson Cage
You can try with all your might
But you're reminded every night
That you been judged and handed life
Down in the Jackson Cage

Every day ends in wasted motion
Just crossed swords on the killing floor
To settle back is to settle without knowing
The hard edge that you're settling for
Because there's always just one more day
And it's always gonna be that way
Little girl you've been down here so long
I can tell by the way that you move you belong to

The Jackson Cage
Down in Jackson Cage
And it don't matter just what you say
Are you tough enough to play the game they play
Or will you just do your time and fade away
Down into the Jackson Cage

Baby there's nights when I dream of a better world
But I wake up so downhearted girl
I see you feeling so tired and confused
I wonder what it's worth to me or you
Just waiting to see some sun
Never knowing if that day will ever come
Left alone standing out on the street
Till you become the hand that turns the key down in*

Jackson Cage
Down in Jackson Cage
Well darlin' can you understand
The way that they will turn a man
Into a stranger to waste away*
Down in the Jackson Cage

Published on The River and played only in that tour. An early take is also available.

* Many of these lyrics can be found in WHITE TOWN.

Available on:

1. The River (disc 1- track 3)
2. Tribute 1997: One Step Up / Two Steps Back: The Songs Of Bruce Springsteen (disc 1- track 4), performed by John Wesley Harding

Liner notes from the One Step Up / Two Steps Back: The Songs Of Bruce Springsteen tribute booklet:

"Jackson Cage" is the fourth Springsteen song I ever heard. "Hungry Heart" was the first (on the radio - a Sunday morning on Radio One) which made me buy The River. "Jackson Cage" is the third track one side one of that record, and the performance is so strong that it almost belies the quality of the lyric; most music that sounds that great doesn't need to bother with good words as well.

Since then, I missed a school exam to see Springsteen live for the first time (no-one seemed to notice: "The River" tour, Brighton), lied about being on the guest-list for a show (and got in! "Tunnel Of Love " tour, Sheffield), and even jumped over a barricade to get closer to the stage ("Amnesty" tour, Wembley Stadium) - all along time ago now but I'd do it again. I've sidled up, asked for his autograph, and been unduly rewarded. Like everyone else in the world, I've even thought he was speaking directly to me (and, in occasions, he actually was). The least I could do was turn in a decent version of a great song for a tribute record.

When Springsteen asked me to open a couple of shows on the "Tom Joad" tour, I had just finished my new record and I gave him a cassette. He was very complimentary about the arrangements and production, so I thought I'd do one of his songs like I would have done it on JWH's New Deal - folk noir on the killing floor, downhearted but dreaming of a better world.

-John Wesley Harding