The Promise

Johnny works in a factory

And Billy works downtown

Terry works in a rock 'n' roll band

Looking for that million-dollar sound

And I got a little job down in Darlington

But some nights I don't go

Some nights I go to the drive-in

Or some nights I stay home

I followed that dream

Just like those guys do way up on the screen

And I drove a Challenger

Down Route 9 through the dead-ends and all the bad scenes

And when the promise was broken

I cashed in a few of my dreams

Well now, I built that Challenger by myself

But I needed money and so I sold it

I lived a secret I should've kept to myself

But I got drunk one night and I told it

All my life I fought this fight

The fight that no man can ever win

Every day it just gets harder

To live this dream I'm believing in

Thunder Road

Oh baby, you were so right

Thunder Road

There's something dying down on the highway tonight

I won big once and I hit the coast

Oh but somehow I paid the big cost

Inside I felt like I was carrying the broken spirits

Of all the other ones who lost

When the promise is broken you go on living

But it steals something from down in your soul

Like when the truth is spoken and it don't make no difference

Something in your heart turns cold

Thunder Road

For the lost lovers and all the fixed games

Thunder Road

For the tires rushing by in the rain

Thunder Road

Remember what me and Billy we'd always say

Thunder Road

We were gonna take it all and throw it all away