I was born down in a dead man's town,
And the first kick I took was when I hit the ground,
And you end up like a dog that's been beaten too much,
Until you spend half your life just covering up.

I got in a little hometown jam,
So they, so they put a rifle in my hand,
And they sent me off to a foreign land,
To go and kill the yellow man.

I had a brother at Khe Sahn,
Fighting off the Viet Kong,
Well, they're still there,
But he's all gone, gone, gone.

He had a woman he loved in Saigon,
I've got a, got a picture of him in her arms,
Well, she's still there,
But he's all gone, gone, gone.

Now in the shadow of the penitentiary,
Out by the gas fires of the refinery,
I've been ten years burning down this road,
I've got nowhere to run,
I've got nowhere to go.

I was born in the USA,
I was born in the USA,
I was born in the USA,
I've got nowhere to run,
I've got nowhere to hide.