Bruce Springsteen lyrics -- Bruce Springsteen shows -- Bruce Springsteen records

Song title: Independence day


Independence day

Well Papa go to bed now it’s getting late
Nothing we can say is gonna change anything now
I’ll be leaving in the morning from St. Mary’s Gate
We wouldn’t change this thing even if we could somehow
`Cause the darkness of this house has got the best of us
There’s a darkness in this town that’s got us too
But they can’t touch me now and you can’t touch me now
They ain’t gonna do to me what I watched them do to you

So say goodbye it’s Independence Day
It’s Independence Day all down the line
Just say goodbye it’s Independence Day
It’s Independence Day this time

Now I don’t know what it always was with us
We chose the words and yeah we drew the lines
There was just no way this house could hold the two of us
I guess that we were just too much of the same kind

Well say goodbye it’s Independence Day
All boys must run away come Independence Day
So say goodbye it’s Independence Day
All men must make their way come Independence Day

Now the rooms are all empty down at Frankie’s joint
And the highway she’s deserted down to Breaker’s Point
There’s a lot of people leaving town now
Leaving their friends their homes
At night they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone

Well Papa go to bed now it’s getting late
Nothing we can say can change anything now
Because there’s just different people coming down here now
And they see things in different ways
And soon everything we’ve known will just be swept away

So say goodbye it’s Independence Day
Papa now I know the things you wanted that you could not say
But won’t you just say goodbye it’s Independence Day
I swear I never meant to take those things away

Statistics from the KILLING FLOOR (www.brucespringsteen.it) database

Published on the following official releases:

First known live performance: 07/07/1978 The Roxy, Los Angeles,CA ,USA
Last known live performance: 23/08/2016 MetLife Stadium, E.Rutherford,NJ ,USA

Song 'history':


Recorded during the DARKNESS studio sessions, but then not used for the album.
34 perfomances were given during the Darkness tour
Published on the double album THE RIVER, in 1980
Perfomed in a large number of shows (130) of the River tour
Scarcely used during the Born in the U.S.A. tour, with 5 inclusions
The song (in live version) was then included in the 'LIVE 1975-85' box set
Played once in the whole Ghost of Tom Joad tour (24/11/1996 Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park,NJ ,USA)
The Reunion tour counted 15 apparitions of this song
One only performance during the Rising tour (28/08/2003 Giants Stadium, E.Rutherford,NJ ,USA)
Played only a couple of times in the whole Devils and Dust tour (06/10/2005 Blue Cross Arena, Rochester,NY ,USA and 09/11/2005 Wachovia Center, Philadelphia,PA ,USA)
Two only renderings for this song in the Magic tour (13/04/2008 American Airlines Center, Dallas,TX ,USA and 04/07/2008 Ullevi Stadium, Goteborg ,Sweden)
Two only renderings for this song in the Working on a Dream tour (23/08/2009 Comcast Theatre, Mansfield, MA ,USA and 08/11/2009 Madison Square Garden, New York,NY ,USA)
Published in live version in the 3rd DVD: House Cut 'Houston '78 of 'The Promise'
Bruce gave this song one only shot through the Wrecking Ball tour (04/07/2012 Bercy, Paris ,France)
One only performance during the High Hopes tour (26/04/2014 Aaron's Amphitheatre at Lakewood, Atlanta,GA ,USA)
Perfomed in a large number of shows (50) of the 2016 The River tour
Data from the www.brucespringsteen.it database