Nebraska

released: 20.Sep. 1982

Live In Dublin

HIGHWAY PATROLMAN

Lyrics By Bruce Springsteen

My name is Joe Roberts

I work for the state

I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville

barracks number 8

I always done an honest job

as honest as I could

I got a brother named Franky

and Franky ain't no good

Now ever since we was young kids

it's been the same come down

I get a call over the shortwave

Franky'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

Me and Franky 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 Franky 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

Franky came home in '68, and me, I took this job

Yea 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 cryin' 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 must of 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 taillights disappear

Me and Franky 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