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
Me I don't do nothing much,
I spend a lot of time alone
Some nights I go to the drive-in,
And some night I stay home
I followed that dream
Just like those guys do way up on the screen
Drove a chopped up 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 dream

Well, 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 that fight
The one that no man can never win
And every day it just gets harder
To live the dream I'm believing in

Thunder road ...
I stay up every morning until it turns light
Thunder road ...
There's something dying out on the highway tonight

Well now 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 man it takes something from down in your soul
Like when the truth is spoken, it don't make no
Difference
Finally something in your heart turns cold
Yeah I followed that dream, me and some guysin the dead ends and all the
Two-bit bars
The night the promise was broken
I was drunk and far away from home,
Sleeping with a stranger
In the back seat of a borrowed car

Thunder road ...
Here's one for the lost lovers and all the fixed games
Thunder road ...
Here's one for the tires rushing by in the rain
Thunder road ...
I remember when me and billy, we'd always say
Thunder road ...
We were gonna take it all, and throw it all away