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 they put a rifle in my hand   Send me off to a foreign land   To go and kill the yellow man      Born in the USA   I was born in the USA   I was born in the USA   I was born in the USA   Born in the USA      Come back home to the refinery   Hiring man says, '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, 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    I was born in the USA   Born in the USA   I'm a long gone Daddy in the USA   Born in the USA   Born in the USA    Born in the USA    I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the USA