Local Hero

Album: Lucky Town (1992)
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  • I was driving through my hometown
    I was just kinda killin' time
    When I seen a face staring out of a black velvet painting
    From the window of the five and dime
    I couldn't quite recall the name
    But the pose looked familiar to me
    So I asked the salesgirl "Who was that man
    Between the doberman and Bruce Lee?"
    She said "Just a local hero"
    "Local hero" she said with a smile
    "Yeah a local hero he used to live here for a while"

    I met a stranger dressed in black
    At the train station
    He said "Son your soul can be saved"
    There's beautiful women nights of low livin'
    And some dangerous money to be made
    There's a big town 'cross the whiskey line
    And if we turn the right cards up
    They make us boss the devil pays off
    And them folks that are real hard up
    They get their local hero
    Somebody with the right style
    They get their local hero
    Somebody with just the right smile

    Well I learned my job I learned it well
    Fit myself with religion and a story to tell
    First they made me the king then they made me pope
    Then they brought the rope

    I woke to a gypsy girl sayin' "Drink this"
    Well my hands had lost all sensation
    These days I'm feeling all right
    'Cept I can't tell my courage from my desperation
    From the tainted chalice
    Well I drunk some heady wine
    Tonight I'm layin' here
    But there's something in my ear
    Sayin' there's a little town just beneath the floodline
    Needs a local hero
    Somebody with the right style
    Lookin' for a local hero
    Someone with the right smile
    Local hero local hero she said with a smile
    Local hero he used to live here for a while Writer/s: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
    Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 4

  • Simone from ItalyI completely disagree, Bruce here doesn't play the part of a charlatan. It's a song about the perception of himself with all the limitations and struggles while he's seen as a hero... until they bring the rope to hang him. The guy at the train station tells him that he can be saved, and he actually feels he needs to. The lines about the whisky line and the desperation are quite clear. Butt he's seen as a hero.
  • Floyd Lamore from Collge Park Maryland, FlThe College Park Kid thinks this is Bruce's best effort, sadly w/out THE Band. Sometimes I think of my hometown College Park and my running budies, Bo,JB,Ronnie, and the infamous Art Carney. When I re-visit the heritage hits me and this song will blare. Forgive my indulgence, but the Boss creates bonding similarities in his music and this song jumped out at me when I first heard the disc. Leap of Faith and Living Proof and on from there. Being near the Nation's Capital as a college Vet in the early '70's I would have the incredible good fortune to know who to talk to for a front row table in the small venues he was then playing. Like The Childe Harolde and Cellar Door, with his guitar picks on my table, our liquid courage and his incredible creative energy of Rosalita etc... surrounding us. So many wonderful times and magic and then this disc speaking concisely to his life. UNREAL yet so grateful. Thank you for the lift BOSS.



  • Gene from San Diego, CaGreat song, one of the best on the album. The line "if they make us the boss, the devil pays off" might have some relevance to his name (The Boss)...
  • Tyler from Hamilton, CanadaThe picture was valued at 19.99 so Bossman tells everyone in the Mtv Plugged concern in 92.
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