Album: Lucky Town (1992)

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• I was driving through my hometown
  I was just kinda killin' time
  When I seen a face staring out of a black velvet painting
  From the window of the five and dime
  I couldn't quite recall the name
  But the pose looked familiar to me
  So I asked the salesgirl "Who was that man
  Between the doberman and Bruce Lee?"
  She said "Just a local hero"
  "Local hero" she said with a smile
  "Yeah a local hero he used to live here for a while"
  
  I met a stranger dressed in black
  At the train station
  He said "Son your soul can be saved"
  There's beautiful women nights of low livin'
  And some dangerous money to be made
  There's a big town 'cross the whiskey line
  And if we turn the right cards up
  They make us boss the devil pays off
  And them folks that are real hard up
  They get their local hero
  Somebody with the right style
  They get their local hero
  Somebody with just the right smile
  
  Well I learned my job I learned it well
  Fit myself with religion and a story to tell
  First they made me the king then they made me pope
  Then they brought the rope
  
  I woke to a gypsy girl sayin' "Drink this"
  Well my hands had lost all sensation
  These days I'm feeling all right
  'Cept I can't tell my courage from my desperation
  From the tainted chalice
  Well I drunk some heady wine
  Tonight I'm layin' here
  But there's something in my ear
  Sayin' there's a little town just beneath the floodline
  Needs a local hero
  Somebody with the right style
  Lookin' for a local hero
  Someone with the right smile
  Local hero local hero she said with a smile
  Local hero he used to live here for a while Writer/s: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
  Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 5

• Johnnie Angel, Video Guitar Guru from New JerseyNo. The man in black is the devil or another supernatural person who promises worldly success in return for a person's soul. Cf. Robert Johnson at the Crossroads who met the man who gave him the skills to be a great blues guitar player. This is based on some African folklore, and the place where such an agreement is made has to be where two roads meet (for a decision to be made), or a place for transportation (with decisions where to go) such as a train station (as in Robert Johnson's Love in Vain). The man in black talks about saving a soul, which is a lie, but promises beautiful women and dangerous money to be made. For Bruce, the Devil pays off. He learned his job well, fit himself with a legend and a story to tell. During the MTV performance, he said he had a sad story to tell, which is that he got his wife to go into the store and purchase the day-glo on black velvet painting. He hung it in the vestibule just inside the door of his house, and expected people to laugh when they walked in. Nobody laughed. That's why its a sad story. There is some downside to success. He is now different from the way he was before, and the way other people are, and part of the realization is when he expects people to laugh at the painting, but they don't. Maybe he thinks that people expect him to now have such a large ego that, with seriousness, he would put such an absurd picture of himself at the entrance to his house.
• Simone from ItalyI completely disagree, Bruce here doesn't play the part of a charlatan. It's a song about the perception of himself with all the limitations and struggles while he's seen as a hero... until they bring the rope to hang him. The guy at the train station tells him that he can be saved, and he actually feels he needs to. The lines about the whisky line and the desperation are quite clear. Butt he's seen as a hero.
• Floyd Lamore from Collge Park Maryland, FlThe College Park Kid thinks this is Bruce's best effort, sadly w/out THE Band. Sometimes I think of my hometown College Park and my running budies, Bo,JB,Ronnie, and the infamous Art Carney. When I re-visit the heritage hits me and this song will blare. Forgive my indulgence, but the Boss creates bonding similarities in his music and this song jumped out at me when I first heard the disc. Leap of Faith and Living Proof and on from there. Being near the Nation's Capital as a college Vet in the early '70's I would have the incredible good fortune to know who to talk to for a front row table in the small venues he was then playing. Like The Childe Harolde and Cellar Door, with his guitar picks on my table, our liquid courage and his incredible creative energy of Rosalita etc... surrounding us. So many wonderful times and magic and then this disc speaking concisely to his life. UNREAL yet so grateful. Thank you for the lift BOSS.
  
  
  
  
• Gene from San Diego, CaGreat song, one of the best on the album. The line "if they make us the boss, the devil pays off" might have some relevance to his name (The Boss)...
• Tyler from Hamilton, CanadaThe picture was valued at 19.99 so Bossman tells everyone in the Mtv Plugged concern in 92.

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