TIME TO GO HOME

Live 01 Sep 1971 version

Empty tin cans cover the ground
Empty love bands bled the last chords down
Stoned out people, running wild
Someone announces they lost that night

Then you know, then you know
Oh, how you know
When you're standing in the middle of a crowd and you feel so alone
The party's over, it's time to go home

Every two-bit junky in the world*
Every psychedelisised little girl
You find too late there is no room to breathe
You're feeling sick, you know you gotta leave

'Cause you know, yes you know
Oh how you know
When you're standing in the middle of a crowd and you feel so alone
The party's over, it's time to go home

Sometimes I think I was born too late
To be what I wanna be
Because when I look around me I can't relate
There is no room, there's no place for me

The band stops, there is no electricity
We can hassle the cops or go watch TV
And off behind some crazy trees
There's a little girl and she's crying so silently

Because she knows, yes she knows
Oh God she knows
When you're standing in the middle of a crowd and you feel so alone
The party's over, it's time to go home

Yes when you're standing in the middle of a crowd and you feel so alone
The party's over and it's time to go home
Time to go home

Page last updated: 12 Apr 2008

Also known as FESTIVAL and IT'S TIME TO GO HOME, this Bruce Springsteen Band track was probably written in mid-1971.

The only known live performance of TIME TO GO HOME was during a Bruce Springsteen Band show on 01 Sep 1971 at Garfield Park, Long Branch, NJ. The above lyrics are for that performance.

The 01 Sep 1971 show was a triple bill, with the 5-member Bruce Springsteen Band headlining (Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, Garry Tallent, David Sancious, and Vini Lopez). The support acts were opening acoustic trio Nash, Large & Ross and Sunny Jim. This was an outdoor afternoon show orchestrated by Tinker West's Blah Productions.

A 10-song/66-minute audience recording of this show was in very limited circulation until April 2008 when Brucetape.com unofficially released a remastered version  to collectors. Unfortunately, the recording's sound quality is weak (but not horrible) due to the the cheap recording device used by the taper. This Bruce Springsteen Band performance apparently lasted nearly two hours, so there's quite a bit missing on the audio source, and discernable edits can be heard in between songs.

* A dollar was originally a Spanish coin worth 8 Reales, hence the dollar symbol, originally an 8 with lines through it. A "bit" was one Real. However, the expression is virtually only used in the form "two bits" (= "a quarter") or in its adjectival form "two-bit" (= "cheap").

Thanks Chris at born2run.de and Ian (Kentboss). Some of the above info are taken from Brucebase.