The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays

Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again

Don't run back inside, darling
You know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore

Show a little faith
There's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me

You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets

Well now I'm no hero, that's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now

Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busted open
These two lanes will take us anywhere

We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven's waiting down on the tracks

And that's, oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh, thunder road, oh, thunder road

It's lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run
Oh thunder road, sit tight take hold, thunder road

Well I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back
If you're ready to take that long walk

From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride, it ain't free
And I know you're lonely for words that I ain't spoken
But tonight we'll be free, all the promises'll be broken

There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets

They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
From here you hear their engines roaring on

But when you get to the porch, they're gone
On the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win