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

'Til you spend half your life just covering up

I was

I was

Born in the U.S.A. now

I got in a little hometown jam

So they put a rifle in my hands

Sent me off to a foreign land

To go and kill the yellow man

I was

I

I was

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

I had a brother at Khe Sahn

Fighting off the Vietcong

They're still there, he's all gone

He had a woman in Saigon

I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary

Out by the gas fires of the refinery

I'm ten years down the road

Nowhere to run and got nowhere to go

I was

I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.

I'm a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A. Now