Yeah they’ll pass you by.
The River intro
“When I was growin’ up me and my dad used to go at it all the time, over almost anything. I used to have really long hair, way down past my shoulders. I was 17 or 18, oh man he used to hate it. And we got to where we’d fight so much that I’d spend a lot of time out of the house. And in the summertime it wasn’t so bad, ‘cause it was warm and your friends were out, but in the winter… I remember standin’ down town and it would get so cold. And, when the wind would blow I had this phone booth I used to stand in. And I used to call my girl, like for hours at a time, just talkin’ to her all night long. And finally I’d get my nerve up to go home, and I’d stand there in the driveway, and he’d be waitin’ for me in the kitchen. And I’d tuck my hair down into my collar, and I’d walk in, and he’d call me back to sit down with him… And the first thing he’d always ask me was; “What did I think I was doin’ with my self”? And the worst part about it, was that I could never explain it to him…
I remember I got in a motorcycle accident once, and I was laid op in bed and he had a barber come in and cut my hair… And man… I can remember tellin’ him that I hated him, and that I would never ever forget it.
And he used to tell me; “Man I can’t wait till the army gets you. When the army gets you, they’re gonna’ make a man out of you. They’re gonna’ cut all that hair of and they’ll make a man out of you”.
And this was in, I guess ’68, when there was a lot of guys from the neighbourhood goin’ to Vietnam. I remember the drummer in my first band, commin’ over to my house, with he’s marine uniform on, sayin’ that he was goin’ and that he didn’t know where it was… And a lot of guys went, and a lot of guys didn’t come back. And the lot that came back, weren’t the same anymore… I remember the day I got my draft notice… I hid it from my folks, and three days before my physical, me and my friends went out, and we stayed up all night. When we got on the bus to go that mornin’, man, we were all so scared… And I went… And I failed… I came home… (Applauds)… It’s nothin’ to applaud about… But I remember commin’ home, after I’d been gone for three days, and walkin’ in the kitchen and my mother father were sittin’ there.
My dad said; “Where’ve you been”?
I said; “Ehhh… I went to take my physical”!
He says; “What happened”?
I said; “They didn’t take me”
And he said; “That’s good…”
by Bruce Springsteen
