Bruce Springsteen Songs - Highway Patrolman Lyrics

Bruce Springsteen - Highway Patrolman

Bruce Springsteen - Highway Patrolman Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Nebraska
Released: 1982

Highway Patrolman Lyrics

My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state
I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number eight
I always done an honest job as honest as I could
I got a brother named Frankie and Frankie ain't no good

Now ever since we was young kids it's been the same come down
I get a call over the radio Frankie's in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away
But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other way

Yeah me and Frankie laughin' and drinkin'
Nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band
Played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"

I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good

Well Frankie went in the army back in 1965
I got a farm deferment, settled down, took Maria for my wife
But them wheat prices kept on droppin' till it was like we were gettin'
Robbed
Frankie came home in '68, and me, I took this job

Yeah we're laughin' and drinkin'
Nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band
Played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"

I catch him when he's strayin' teach him how to walk that line
Man turns his back on his family he ain't no friend of mine

Well the night was like any other, I got a call 'bout quarter to nine
There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line
There was a kid lyin' on the floor lookin' bad bleedin' hard from his head
There was a girl cry'n' at a table and it was Frank, they said

Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
Well I musta done one hundred and ten through Michigan county that night
It was out at the crossroads, down 'round Willow bank
Seen a Buick with Ohio plates. Behind the wheel was Frank

Well I chased him through them county roads
Till a sign said "Canadian border five miles from here"
I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his tail-lights disappear

Me and Frankie laughin' and drinkin'
Nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band
Played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"

Writer/s: ACOSTA, GEORGE/RENEE, NADINE
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Highway Patrolman Song Chart

This is told from the viewpoint of the highway patrolman who has to deal with his brother constantly getting in trouble with the law.

Springsteen recorded this in one take on a 4-track tape deck. Intended as a demo for the band to work with, he decided that this and the other songs he recorded sounded best as they were and Nebraska became a solo album.

Johnny Cash used this to open his 1983 album Johnny 99. The album was named after another Springsteen song that Cash also covered.

This song was the basis for the 1991 Sean Penn move The Indian Runner.

A version with The Seeger Sessions Band that Springsteen performed on his "American Land" tour appeared on this 2007 album The Sessions Band: Live in Dublin. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

The lyric "When the band played Night of the Johnstown Flood" concerns a flood that engulfed the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania on the night of May 21, 1889. It was caused by a ferocious storm that broke down the South Fork Dam, 15 miles upstream. 20 million tons of water engulfed the town and 2,000 lives were lost. Over the years several songs have been written about the flood and it is thought that Springsteen is most likely referring to Mack Moody's 1963 version of the traditional folk song "Jonestown Flood."