Album: Nebraska (1982)

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• My little sister's in the front seat with an ice cream cone
  My ma's in the back seat sitting all alone
  As my pa steers her slow out of the lot
  For a test drive down Michigan Avenue
  
  Now my ma, she fingers her wedding band
  And watches the salesman stare at my old man's hands
  He's telling us all about the break he'd give us if he could but he just can't
  Well, if I could I swear I know just what I'd do
  
  Now mister the day the lottery I win
  I ain't ever gonna ride in no used car again
  
  Now the neighbors come from near and far
  As we pull up in our brand new used car
  I wish he'd just hit the gas and let out a cry
  And tell them all they can kiss our asses goodbye
  
  My dad, he sweats the same job from morning to morn
  Me, I walk home on the same dirty streets where I was born
  Up the block, I can hear my little sister in the front seat blowing that horn
  The sounds echoing all down Michigan Avenue
  
  Now mister the day my number comes in
  I ain't ever gonna ride in no used car again Writer/s: Bruce Springsteen
  Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 6

• Andrew from Wales, UkUnpopular opinion: this is Springsteen’s finest song on his finest album
• Leo from Westminster 1, MdI totally agree with The Boss. Bruce is right in screams of rage "Now mister the day the lottery I win/I ain't never gonna ride in no used car again!" The perfect requiem for the automobile age.
• Jamie from Limerick, IrelandI recently converted a keen bluesman to springsteen mania with this song and album
• Callie from Hattiesburg, MsI love this song. I am a dance major and am creating a work to this song for a class. It haunts my ideas. I relate so well to the shame of not having money in your life and not being able to have the simplest things.
• Fred from Abilene, TxI, too, can relate this song to my childhood. My dad was a bricklayer, and we mostly drove used pickup trucks. (Back in those days, we kids would ride in the back.) The salesman "stare[s] at my old man's hands." The salesman can tell that the man buying the car is a laborer by looking at his hands, and knows just how much he can afford to pay.
• Kristie from Ester, ArAs with many Springsteen songs, the lyrics of this one touched a place in my heart that I'd forgotten existed. My father, an engineer, raised 7 children, and he could only afford used cars, a fact that embarrassed me as a kid. I used to think, "When I grow up, I'll never buy used cars!" Was I ashamed of the cars or the parents who bought them?

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