Born down in a dead man’s town

The first kick I took was when I hit the ground

You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much

Till you spend half your life just covering up

Born in the U.S.A.

Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hand

Sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man

Born in the U.S.A.

Come back home to the refinery

Hiring man says “son if it was up to me”

Went down to see my V.A. man

He said “son don’t you understand now”

Had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong

They’re still there he’s all gone

He had a woman he loved in Saigon

I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of penitentiary

Out by the gas fires of the refinery

I’m ten years burning down the road

Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to go