Bruce Springsteen - Straight Time lyrics

Got out of prison back in '86
And I found a wife
Walked the clean and narrow
Just trying to stay out and stay alive
Got a job at the rendering plant
It ain't going to make me rich
In the darkness before dinner comes
Sometimes I can feel the itch

I got a cold mind to go
Tripping across that thin line
I'm sick of doing straight time

My uncle's at the evening table
Makes his living running hot cars
Slips me a hundred dollar bill says
"Charlie, you best remember who
Your friends are"

I got a cold mind to go
Tripping across that thin line
I'm sick of doing straight time

Eight years in
It feels like you're gonna die
But you get used to anything
Sooner or later, it just becomes your life

Kitchen floor in the evening
Tossing my little babies high
Mary's smiling, but she's watching me out of
The corner of her eye
Seems you can't get any more than half free
Step out onto the front porch and suck
The cold air deep inside of me

I got a cold mind to go
Tripping across that thin line
I'm sick of doing straight time

In the basement, hunting gun and a hacksaw
Sip a beer and thirteen inches of
Barrel drop to the floor
Come home in the evening
Can't get the smell from my hands
Lay my head down on the pillow and
Go drifting off into foreign lands