Bruce Springsteen
TIES THAT BIND: THE RIVER COLLECTION

CD 1 und CD 2: "The River" - CD 3: "The River: Single Album" - CD 4: "The River Outtakes"

  THE TIES THAT BIND
You been hurt and you're all cried out you say
You walk down the street pushin' people outta your way
You packed your bags and all alone you wanna ride,
You don't want nothin', don't need no one by your side
You're walkin' tough baby, but you're walkin' blind
to the ties that bind

(Chorus)
The ties that bind
Now you can't break the ties that bind

Cheap romance, it's all just a crutch
You don't want nothin' that anybody can touch
You're so afraid of being somebody's fool
Not walkin' tough baby, not walkin' cool
You walk cool, but darlin', can you walk the line
And face the ties that bind
The ties that bind
Now you can't break the ties that bind

I would rather feel the hurt inside, yes I would darlin',
Than know the emptiness your heart must hide,
Yes I would darlin', yes I would darlin',
Yes I would baby

You sit and wonder just who's gonna stop the rain
Who'll ease the sadness, who's gonna quiet the pain
It's a long dark highway and a thin white line
Connecting baby, your heart to mine
We're runnin' now but darlin' we will stand in time
To face the ties that bind
The ties that bind
Now you can't break the ties that bind
You can't forsake the ties that bind

  CINDY
I pick you up with flowers when you get off from work
It's like you don't even care, it's like I'm some kind of jerk
I take you out on a date and then you won't even kiss me
Boy when I ain't around I'll bet you don't even miss me

I don't know why, I love you like I do
I try and try, you treat me like a fool
It makes me want to cry, it makes me feel so blue
But I just do, baby, I just do

I call you up just to pass the time
Soon as you hear my voice you disconnect the line
And when I call you back your mother says you ain't home
Cindy I know that's you on the other end of this phone

Oh in this world there ain't another like you
My little candy girl, so hard-hearted and cruel
I think that's what keeps me coming back
I'm a fool for you Cindy and I like it like that

I came to get you last night, Cindy, at quarter to six
Your Daddy came to the door, he said Cindy got sick
She got sent home from work with a note from the nurse
And my very own presence would make your condition worse
But it ain't your health, 'cause well you sure look so fine
Little girl it's something else that's on my mind
What have you got, well you can give it to me
Cause if it's good enough for you, it's good enough for me

I don't know why I love you like I do
You make me cry and feel like such a fool
I guess I like it when you hurt me this way
You dish it out and I just put it away

  HUNGRY HEART
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back
Like a river that don't know where it's flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going

(Chorus)
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody's got a hungry heart

I met her in a Kingstown bar
We fell in love I knew it had to end
We took what we had and we ripped it apart
Now here I am down in Kingstone again

(Chorus)

Everybody needs a place to rest
Everybody wants to have a home
Don't make no difference what nobody says
Ain't nobody like to be alone

(Chorus)

  STOLEN CAR
I met a little girl and I settled down
In a little house out on the edge of town
We got married, and swore we'd never part
Then little by little we drifted from each other's heart

At first I thought it was just restlessness
That would fade as time went by and our love grew deep
In the end it was something more I guess
That tore us apart and made us weep

And I'm driving a stolen car
Down on Eldridge Avenue
Each night I wait to get caught
But I never do

She asked if I remembered the letters I wrote
When our love was young and bold
She said last night she read those letters
And they made her feel one hundred years old

And I'm driving a stolen car
On a pitch black night
And I'm telling myself I'm gonna be alright
But I ride by night and I travel in fear
That in this darkness I will disappear

  BE TRUE
Your scrapbook's filled with pictures of all your leading men
Well baby don't put my picture in there with them
Don't make us some little girl's dream that can't ever come true
That only serves to hurt and make you cry like you do
Well baby don't do it to me and I won't do it to you

You see all the romantic movies, you dream and take the boys home
But when the action fades you're left all alone
You deserve better than this, little girl can't you see you do
Do you need somebody to prove it to you
Well you prove it to me and I'll prove it to you

Now every night you go out looking for true love's satisfaction
But in the morning you end up settling for just lights, camera, action

And another cameo role with some bit player you're befriending
You're gonna go broken-hearted looking for that happy ending
Well girl you're gonna end up just another lonely ticket sold
Cryin' alone in the theatre as the credits roll
You say I'll be like those other guys
Who filled your head with pretty lies
And dreams that can never come true
Well baby you be true to me
And I'll be true to you

  THE RIVER
I come from down in the valley
where mister when you're young
They bring you up to do like your daddy done
Me and Mary we met in high school
when she was just seventeen
We'd ride out of that valley down to where the fields were green

We'd go down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we'd ride

Then I got Mary pregnant
and man that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse
and the judge put it all to rest
No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle
No flowers no wedding dress

That night we went down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we did ride

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well mister they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don't remember
Mary acts like she don't care

But I remember us riding in my brother's car
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
that sends me down to the river
though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight
Down to the river
my baby and I
Oh down to the river we ride

  YOU CAN LOOK (BUT YOU BETTER NOT TOUCH)
Yesterday I went shopping buddy down to the mall
Looking for something pretty I could hang on my wall
I knocked over a lamp before it hit the floor I caught it
A salesman turned around said, "boy, you break that thing you bought it"

You can look but you better not touch boy
You can look but you better not touch
Mess around and you'll end up in dutch boy
You can look but you better not, no you better not, no you better not touch

Well I came home from work and I switched on Channel 5
There was a pretty little girly lookin' straight into my eyes
Well I watched as she wiggled back and forth across the screen
She didn't get me excited she just made me feel mean

You can look but you better not touch boy
You can look but you better not touch
Mess around and you'll end up in dutch boy
You can look but you better not, no you better not, no you better not touch
Come on...

Well I called up Dirty Annie on the telephone
I took her out to the drive-in just to get her alone
I found a lover's rendezvous, the music low, set to park
I heard a tappin' on the window and a voice in the dark

You can look but you better not touch boy
You can look better not touch
Mess around and you'll end up in dutch boy
You can look but you better not, no you better not, no you better not touch

You can look but you better not touch boy
You can look better not touch
Mess around and you'll end up in dutch boy
You can look but you better not, no you better not, no you better not,
No you better not, no you better not, I swear you better not, no you better not,
Come on...

  THE PRICE YOU PAY
You make up your mind, you choose the chance you take
You ride to where the highway ends and the desert breaks
Out on to an open road you ride until the day
You learn to sleep at night with the price you pay

Now with their hands held high, they reached out for the open skies
And in one last breath they built the roads they'd ride to their death
Driving on through the night, unable to break away
From the restless pull of the price you pay

(Chorus)
Oh, the price you pay, oh, the price you pay
Now you can't walk away from the price you pay

Now they'd come so far and they'd waited so long
Just to end up caught in a dream where everything goes wrong
Where the dark of night holds back the light of day
And you've gotta stand and fight for the price you pay

(Chorus)

Little girl down on the strand
With that pretty little baby in your hands
Do you remember the story of the promised land
How he crossed the desert sands
And could not enter the chosen land
On the banks of the river he stayed
To face the price you pay

So let the games start, you better run you little wild heart
You can run through all the nights and all the days
But just across the county line, a stranger passing through put up a sign
That counts the men fallen away to the price you pay,
and girl before the end of the day,
I'm gonna tear it down and throw it away

  I WANNA MARRY YOU
I see you walking, baby, down the street
Pushing that baby carriage at your feet
I see that lonely ribbon in your hair
Tell me I am the man for whom you put it there

You never smile girl, you never speak
You just walk on by, darlin' week after week
Raising two kids alone in this mixed up world
Must be a lonely life for a working girl

(Chorus)
Little girl, I wanna marry you
Oh yeah, little girl, I wanna marry you
Yes I do
Little girl, I wanna marry you

Now honey, I don't wanna clip your wings
But a time comes when two people should think of these things
Having a home and a family
Facing up to their responsibilities
They say in the end true love prevails
But in the end true love can't be no fairytale
To say I'll make your dreams come true would be wrong
But maybe, darlin', I could help them along

(Chorus)

My daddy said right before he died
That true, true love was just a lie
He went to his grave a broken heart
An unfulfilled life, makes a man hard

Oh, darlin'
There's something happy and there's something sad
'Bout wanting somebody, oh so bad,
I wear my love darlin', without shame
I'd be proud if you would wear my name

  LOOSE ENDS
We met out on open streets when we had no place to go
I remember how my heart beat when you said I love you so
Then little by little we choked out all the life that our love could hold
Oh no

It's like we had a noose and baby without check
We pulled until it grew tighter around our necks
Each one waiting for the other, darlin', to say when
Well baby you can meet me tonight on the loose end

We didn't count tomorrows, we took what we could and baby we ran
There was no time for sorrow, every place we went I held your hand
And when the night closed in I was sure your kisses told me all I had to know
But oh no

Our love has fallen around us like we said it never could
We saw it happen to all the others but to us it never would
Well how could something so bad, darling, come from something that was so good
I don't know