Widely Misunderstood

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
Once you spend half your life just covering up

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

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said, "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 Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, but he's all gone

He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down this road
Ain't got nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go

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

-Bruce Springsteen, "Born in the U.S.A."