Live 05 Jul 1978 version
[Spoken:] This is a song I wrote back in 1972. It was, uh, covered by Greg Kihn on Beserkley Records, he made a real good... He made an album I liked a lot. Was, uh... And, uh... This is "Greetings From Asbury Park".
Well princess cards she sends me with her regards
Her barroom eyes shine vacancy, to see her you gotta look hard, hey!
Well I was wounded deep in battle, but I stood stuffed like some soldier undaunted
To her Cheshire smile I'd stand on file, she's all I ever wanted
Oh, you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts
Honey, get your carpetbaggers off my back
You wouldn't even give me time to cover my tracks
You said, "Here's your mirror and your ball and jacks"
But they ain't what I came for, and I'm sure you see that too
I came for you, for you, I came for you, you did not need my urgency
For you, for you, I came for you, your life was one long emergency
Your cloud line urges me, my electric surges free
Crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
Reveal yourself now to me girl while you've got the strength to speak
They're waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks
Well I could give it all to you here, if only you would ask
Don't call for your surgeon, even he says it's too late
It ain't your lungs this time, it's your heart that holds your fate
Don't give me my money, honey, I don't want it back
You and your pony face and your union jack
Take that local joker, teach him how to act
Well I was never that way even when I really cracked
Didn't you think I knew that you were born with the power of a locomotive
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?
Your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
You could laugh and cry in a single sound
Ah hey hey
Your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the god
You were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
Remember how I poured salt on your tongue and hung just out of reach
When the band were playing the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
That ragged, jagged melody still clings to me like a leech
Well, that medal you wore on your chest always got in the way
You were like a little girl with a trophy so soft to buy her way
We were both hitchhiking but you had your ears tuned to the roar
Of some metal-tempered engine on an alien distant shore
You left to find a better reason than the one we were living for
And it ain't that nursery mouth I came back for
And It ain't the way that you're stretched out on the floor
Well, I've broken all your windows, rammed through all your doors
Who am I to ask you to lick my sores?
You should know that's true
I came for you, for you, I came for you, you did not need my urgency
For you, for you, I came for you, your life was one long emergency
Your cloud line urges me, my electric surges free
Say!
For you, for you, I came for you
For you, for you, I came for you
For you, for you, I came for you
For you, for you, I came for you
The above lyrics are for the live 05 Jul 1978 performance of FOR YOU at The Forum in Inglewood, CA, during the Darkness On The Edge Of Town Tour. The song was played in its full-band album-style arrangement.
This show was filmed in part by KABC TV and there is also some silent super-8 footage that shows Springsteen playing a Fender Stratocaster instead of the usual Telecaster. An interview with Springsteen was carried out backstage after the show by reporter J. J. Jackson for Eye Witness News. Ten minutes of this interview were broadcast on 07 Jul 1978.
Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help. Info about the 05 Jul 1978 show is taken from Brucebase.
List of available versions of FOR YOU on this website:
FOR YOU [Album version]
