Songfacts®:

• "Straight Time" is a lamentful song about an ex-con who gets married, gets a job, has a family, and tries to live the sanctioned American life. The world will never stop judging him though - even his wife questions his intentions and actions. It seems like just a matter of time before a violent outcry arrives. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Willy - Winchester, MA
• This song is part of Springsteen's The Ghost Of Tom Joad album, a somber set he recorded without the E Street Band, which he broke up in 1989. When he toured for the album, he did so solo acoustic, and he talked about the songs between sets. At a show in New York City, he explained this one:
  
  "This is a song about a fellow who gets out of prison and comes home and is trying to find out how he can find a way to integrate himself back into the world, back into his family. You know, old habits, they die really hard, because those are the things that somehow give us a feeling of who we are no matter how destructive or harmful they may be. Everybody's laid awake at night and had the worst of them feel like their only hope sometimes, like their only chance, only breath of fresh air."