The Price You Pay

Album: The River (1980)
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  • You make up your mind, you choose the chance you take
    You ride to where the highway ends and the desert breaks
    Out on to an open road you ride until the day
    You learn to sleep at night with the price you pay

    Now with their hands held high, they reached out for the open skies
    And in one last breath they built the roads they'd ride to their death
    Driving on through the night, unable to break away
    From the restless pull of the price you pay

    Oh, the price you pay, oh, the price you pay
    Now you can't walk away from the price you pay

    Now they'd come so far and they'd waited so long
    Just to end up caught in a dream where everything goes wrong
    Where the dark of night holds back the light of the day
    And you've gotta stand and fight for the price you pay

    Woah, the price you pay, oh, the price you pay
    Now you can't walk away from the price you pay

    Hey, oh
    Little girl down on the strand
    With that pretty little baby in your hands
    Do you remember the story of the promised land
    How he crossed the desert sands
    And could not enter the chosen land
    On the banks of the river he stayed
    To face the price you pay

    So let the games start, you better run you little wild heart
    You can run through all the nights and all the days
    But just across the county line, a stranger passing through put up a sign
    That counts the men fallen away to the price you pay
    And girl before the end of the day
    I'm gonna tear it down and throw it away Writer/s: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
    Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 5

  • Amanda from WaThis is a song that grows on you the older you get. So much wisdom and insight and a poem and a song in one. The song shows Bruce's unique talents as a songwriter and has stood the test of time. I got divorced years ago after making some mistakes and I learned to live with the price I paid.
  • Gary from UsPowerful song! Love the music. Never ever read the story of Moses how he Could not enter the Promised Land to face the price you pay. After listening to the song , did some reading about it.
  • Aurelio from Freehold, NjDefinitely one of the Boss's most underrated songs. I was floored the first time I heard this song because when you think about it, there is a price to be paid for everything you choose to do and/or everything you choose not to do. And you had better more successful making the right choices, or else life can be awfully long and painful.

    The lyrics that reached me immediately on a very visceral level..."With their hands held high, they reached out for the open sky. And in one last breath, they built the roads they'd ride to their death."

    What started out with such freedom and promise turned out to be the wrong choice and the fictional people in the song chose their ultimate demise....the price they would pay.
  • Sheldon from Toronto, CanadaOh how I wish he would play this song at his next visit to Toronto!!!
  • Kyle from Belleville, CanadaWhy doesn't the Boss play this more?
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