Words and music by Bruce Springsteen

From Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska



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 Frank he ain't no good

Now ever since we was young kids it's been the same come down

I get a call on 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



CHORUS 1:

Yeah, me and Franky laughing and drinking nothing feels better than blood on blood

Takin' turns dancin' with Marie as the band played Night of the Johnstown Flood

I catch him when he's straying 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 dropping 'till it was like we were getting robbed

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



CHORUS 2:

Yea we're laughing and drinking nothing feels better than blood on blood

Takin' turns dancin' with Marie as the band played Night of the Johnstown Flood

I catch him when he's straying, 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 lying on the floor lookin' bad bleedin' hard from his head

There was a girl crying at a table and it was Frank, they said

Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights

But I