Johnny 99 Lyrics – Bruce Springsteen

Johnny 99 (Live at Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ) Lyrics

[Intro]
Hoo, hoo
Hoo, hoo

[Verse 1]
Well, they closed down the auto plant in Mahwah late last month
Ralph went out lookin’ for a job but he couldn’t find none
He came home too drunk from mixin’ Tanqueray and wine
Got a gun, shot a night clerk, now they call him Johnny 99

[Verse 2]
Down in the part of town where when you hit a red light, you don’t stop
Johnny’s wavin’ his gun around, threatenin’ to blow his top
When an off-duty cop snuck up on him from behind
Out in front of the Club Tip Top, they slapped the cuffs on Johnny 99

[Bridge]
Well, the city supplied a public defender
But the judge was Mean John Brown
He came into the courtroom
And stared poor Johnny down
“Well, thе evidence is clеar gonna let the sentence, son, fit the crime
Prison for ninety-eight and a year and we’ll call it even, Johnny 99” (Hoo)

[Harmonica Solo]
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[Bridge]
Well, a fistfight broke out in the courtroom
They had to drag Johnny’s girl away
His mama stood up and shouted
“Judge, don’t take my boy this way”
“Well, son, you got any statement you’d like to make
Before the bailiff comes to forever take you away?”

[Verse 3]
“Well now, judge, judge, I had debts no honest man could pay
The bank was holdin’ my mortgage, they were gonna take my house away
Well now, I ain’t sayin’ that makes me an innocent man
But it was more than all this, judge, that put that gun in my hand

[Verse 4]
“Well, Your Honor, I believe that I’d be better off dead
So if you can take a man’s life for the thoughts that’s in his head
Then sit back in that chair and think it over, judge, one more time
And let ’em shave off my hair and put me on that execution line” (Yoo)