Album: The Fire Inside (1991)

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• There's a hard moon risin' on the streets tonight
  There's a reckless feeling in your heart as you head out tonight
  Through the concrete canyons to the midtown lights
  Where the latest neon promises are burning bright
  
  Past the open windows on the darker streets
  Where unseen angry voices flash and children cry
  Past the phony posers with their worn out lines
  The tired new money dressed to the nines
  The low life dealers with their bad designs
  And the dilettantes with their open minds
  
  You're out on the town, safe in the crowd
  Ready to go for the ride
  Searching the eyes, looking for clues
  There's no way you can hide
  The fire inside
  
  Well you've been to the clubs and the discotheques
  Where they deal one another from the bottom of a deck of promises
  Where the cautious loners and emotional wrecks
  Do an acting stretch as a way to hide the obvious
  And the lights go down and they dance real close
  And for one brief instant they pretend they're safe and warm
  
  Then the beat gets louder and the mood is gone
  The darkness scatters as the lights flash on
  They hold one another just a little too long
  And they move apart and then move on
  
  On to the street, on to the next
  Safe in the knowledge that they tried
  Faking the smile, hiding the pain
  Never satisfied
  The fire inside
  Fire inside
  
  Now the hour is late and he thinks you're asleep
  You listen to him dress and you listen to him leave like you knew he would
  You hear his car pull away in the street
  Then you move to the door and you lock it when he's gone for good
  
  Then you walk to the window and stare at the moon
  Riding high and lonesome through a starlit sky
  And it comes to you how it all slips away
  Youth and beauty are gone one day
  No matter what you dream or feel or say
  It ends in dust and disarray
  
  Like wind on the plains, sand through the glass
  Waves rolling in with the tide
  Dreams die hard and we watch them erode
  But we cannot be denied
  The fire inside Writer/s: BOB SEGER
  Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 14

• Michael from FlNo matter what you dream or feel or say it ends in dust (Genesis 3:19: "For you are dust, and to dust you shall return")
  and disarray.(dead in your sins) Dreams die hard ( proverbs 14 :12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
  But its end is the way of death.) and we watch them erode but we cannot be denied .The fire inside. Avoid the everlasting fires of Hell .John 3 : 18 “He who believes in Him (Jesus )is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The remedy .John 3 :16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
• Alan from Cheshire EnglandI always thought the fire inside is the desire to both love and be loved and it is the absence of these which keeps the fire burning.
• Lauren from Kent, EnglandThe Fire Inside, to me, is the passion and longing that drives us in life. It’s about that burning desire for the ideal - an ideal which does not exist. Thus, the fire inside that motivates us is also what ‘burns us out’, when there’s always some part of ourselves left unsatisfied. It is a brutally honest portrayal of human nature.
• AnonymousFire inside to me is about who have passion. They search their whole lives looking for that special or thing that will fill the hole inside. Keeps you going but you are never satisfied. It’s about restlessness longing.
• Blake from St. Paul, MnPlease people do not listen to half of what others wrote in the songfacts or comments section about this song because they are simply mistaken and don't quite understand the lyrics. No one is looking for a lost companion from the past and "fire" has nothing to do with rage. Instead, the word "fire" is often used as a metaphor for desire, drive, passion, etc. that one has in regards to something...in this case...the search for love. Nick from Helena, MT explained the meaning perfectly...The Fire Inside = Desire To Find True Love
• Mike from Matawan, NjProbably Segers best. Kind of weird when juxtaposed against Seger's other tunes...most of which tout 'going out for good times', the kind this song decries. Nick and Mike? Spot on observations. Well done.
• Nick from Helena, MtThis is about EVERY person's deep down desire to find fulfillment in life through true love. Unfortunately, our increasing desperation for true love makes us open ourselves up with much less restraint than we should normally have. This rash and usually false hope often leads to people being used and hurt. Although the girl is feeling very hurt from opening herself up only to meet rejection again, she doesn't lose her hope, faith, and DESIRE that true love is still out there. She doesn't lose the 'fire inside'.
• Mike from Ocala, FlI have to agree mostly with Heifer. The song is about a woman and the "fire inside" is lust. While she is lonesome and looking for love, she cannot deny her desires. Her familiarity with the scene indicates that her one night stands are a cyclical pattern of desperation. Even though she is watching her hopes and dreams pass by and realizes that her youth and beauty will fade, she is unable to alter her behavior.
• Heifer from Hudsonville, MiSeeing how the last verse is written from a female perspective you'd think the whole song is her story. Not sure I agree she's out looking for any one in particular, just for true love. I don't sense much rage either, just sadness and frustration, yet hope.
• Marc from Perth, AustraliaI've always imagined that the last 3 verses are about his father walking out of his life at a young age and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence with a sudden spark of pessimism. ("and it comes to you how it all slips away etc.. etc..).
• Vernon from Trinidad, Wi, OtherRoy Bittan from the E Street Band played on this song and I always found the riff to be extremely Springsteen-esque due to that.
• Mary from Phoenix, AzI agree also. I love this song...and Bob Seger. But, I just read the above "SongFacts", and I guess I don't quite get it. Maybe I'm just not hearing the song right. Maybe I'll keep listening to it till I DO understand.
• Jake from Toronto, CanadaI agree. I've liked this song since the first time I heard it, but it's so much more tragically beautiful when you understand the meaning - the things left unsaid, the feelings unresolved - the Fire Inside.
• Brian from Gregory, MiOne of the most underrated songs ever. The fact that there are no comments yet supports my theory!

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