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
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the USA
I was born in the USA
I was born in the USA
Born in the USA
Got in a little hometown jam
So okay put a rifle in my hands
Send me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man
Born in the USA
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said "Son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my VA man
He said "Son don't you understand now"
Had a brother at Khe Sahn 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 USA