Returning to my ‘Nebraska’ theme, here’s the song lyrics from the title song of Springsteen’s album, the obvious choice perhaps to have mentioned before, but the State of Nebraska is not the central significance, nor is Lincoln where the narrative of this song begins: the whole album is a collective narrative about America and the struggles of blue collar everyman, whether immersed in evil – as with the title song’s representation of real killer Charles Starkweather – or with ‘good’ men who do ‘bad’ things, as with the policeman in my favourite Highway Patrolman who lets his brother escape after the sibling shooting someone. I thought of this today as I listened to Steve Earle’s cover of Nebraska on the Copperhead Road Deluxe edition. So, it links to the aforementioned previous theme, and that of Outlaws re. my recent review of Billy Joe Shaver.
I saw her standin' on her front lawn just twirlin' her baton
Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people died
From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska with a sawed off .410 on my lap
Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path
I can't say that I'm sorry for the things that we done
At least for a little while sir me and her we had us some fun
The jury brought in a guilty verdict and the judge he sentenced me to death
Midnight in a prison storeroom with leather straps across my chest
Sheriff when the man pulls that switch sir and snaps my poor head back
You make sure my pretty baby is sittin' right there on my lap
They declared me unfit to live said into that great void my soul'd be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world.
Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people died
From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska with a sawed off .410 on my lap
Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path
I can't say that I'm sorry for the things that we done
At least for a little while sir me and her we had us some fun
The jury brought in a guilty verdict and the judge he sentenced me to death
Midnight in a prison storeroom with leather straps across my chest
Sheriff when the man pulls that switch sir and snaps my poor head back
You make sure my pretty baby is sittin' right there on my lap
They declared me unfit to live said into that great void my soul'd be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world.
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