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 coverin up born in the u s a i was born in the u s a i was born in the u s a 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 i was born in the u s a i was born in the u s a i was 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 i had a brother at khe sanh 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 the 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  born in the u s a i was born in the u s a now born in the u s a i m a long gone daddy in the u s a now born in the u s a born in the u s a born in the u s a i m a cool rockin daddy in the u s a now23