Bruce Springsteen - Jungleland lyrics

The Rangers had a homecoming in
Harlem late last night
And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine
Over the Jersey state line
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge
Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain
The Rat pulls into town rolls up his pants
Together they take a stab at romance
And disappear down Flamingo Lane

Well the maximum lawman run down Flamingo
Chasing the Rat and the barefoot girl
And the kids round here
Look just like shadows
Always quiet, holding hands
From the churches to the jails
Tonight all is silence in the world
As we take our stand down in Jungleland

Well the midnight gangs assembled
And picked a rendezvous for the night
They'll meet 'neath that giant Exxon sign
That brings this fair city light
Man there's an opera out on the turnpike
There's a ballet being fought
Out in the alley
Until the local cops, cherry top
Rips this holy night

The street's alive as secret debts are paid
Contact's made, they vanished unseen
Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades
Hustling for the record machine
The hungry and the hunted
Explode into rock'n'roll bands
That faced off against each other
Out in the street down in Jungleland

In the parking lot the visionaries
Dress in the latest rage
Inside the backstreet girls are dancing to
The records that the DJ plays
Lonely hearted lovers struggle
In dark corners
Desperate as the night moves on
Just one look and a whisper, and they're gone

Beneath the city two hearts beat
Soul engines running through a
Night so tender
In a bedroom locked in whispers
Of soft refusal and then surrender
In the tunnels uptown the Rat's
Own dream guns him down
As shots echo down them hallways in the night
No one watches when the ambulance pulls away
Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light

Outside the street's on fire in
A real death waltz
Between what's flesh and what's fantasy
And the poets down here
Don't write nothing at all
They just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night
They reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand
But they wind up wounded, not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland