Jersey City boy
On the rooftop cool in the city
Hot headed in the night
Got a burning for a good way forward
Got a fire in his eye
Jesuit school and daddy is a doctor
Nanny in the attic and Johnny’s got cancer
Mama’s got five kids
You’ve got asthma

Take it to the shore
Just a benny on the beach with a hard cut style
Another restless kid on the Avon mile
Hail Marys and Rock and Roll
Springsteen is gonna save your soul
You’ve got the spark that’ll start this fire

And everywhere I go there you are
I can feel it in my blood - there you are
What a restless soul - what a heart on fire
I wanna take it there - I wanna find you here

- - - - -

Ten years a requiem
Can I let it go now?
And all the things lost
Can I let them go now?

Can I let them go now?
Can I let them go?

I held your suffering
I didn’t want it!
I got a tough skin
I didn’t want it!

I didn’t want it
I didn’t want it

The salt is thickest at the bottom of the sea
I know it - see my tongue I have licked it!
I followed you down to the bottom of the sea
I grew gills, my blood thickened

I gotta tough skin
I gotta tough skin

Ten years a reckoning
Are we in the clear now?
And every word spent
Are we in the clear now?

Are we in the clear now?
Are we in the clear?

I gotta tough skin
I gotta tough skin

From the moment that I heard
Like a blueprint in my blood
It was comin’ like Biblical flood
I know it’s not the way we wanted it to be
But still the waters rose in that imminent sea!

I gotta tough skin
I gotta tough skin