///*****/// [Intro] (Boogie shuffle riff, hi-hat swinging, engine roar sample) [Verse 1] Eighteen wheels and a broken tail light Two hundred miles between us and the night The driver's name is Dutch and he don't ever sleep He's got coffee in his blood and a promise to keep Guitar cases stacked like coffins in the back A road map torn in half and a Cleveland matchbook pack There's a border in the morning and a stage at half past nine And nothing in this world is gonna keep us from that line [Pre-Chorus] The tarmac's humming, the diesel's burning The compass in my chest keeps turning [Chorus] We ride the rolling thunder highway Chasing down the sound of the storm Every town another lightning strike Every night another fire born Rolling thunder highway, take me home! [Verse 2] Munich in the rain and Detroit in the snow Same four walls and a different radio The crew all sleeping like a graveyard in the bunks Someone's dreaming of a wife, someone's dreaming of a drunk I've watched the sun come up on a hundred empty roads Counting yellow lines like a rosary of gold And people ask me what I'm running from out here Man, I'm not running from a thing, I'm running toward the cheer [Pre-Chorus] The tarmac's humming, the diesel's burning The compass in my chest keeps turning [Chorus] We ride the rolling thunder highway Chasing down the sound of the storm Every town another lightning strike Every night another fire born Rolling thunder highway, take me home! [Guitar Solo] (Swinging blues-rock shuffle solo, slide bottleneck growl into fast triplet runs) [Breakdown / Bass and Drums] Just the shuffle, just the rumble Feel that engine, feel it running Hands together, keep it moving Yeah! [Bridge] There's a stretch of road outside of Amarillo Where the sky gets so big that you disappear And I swear I heard the whole band laughing in the mirror Like we're never gonna get old, never gonna get out of here Never gonna stop! [Final Chorus] We ride the rolling thunder highway Chasing down the sound of the storm Every town another lightning strike Every night another fire born We were born on the rolling thunder highway And we'll die with the engine warm Rolling thunder highway, take me home! [Verse 3] There's a diner outside Flagstaff where they know us all by name Same waitress for eleven years, she never asks for fame She just pours the coffee black and says, you boys look rough tonight And it feels more like a homecoming than any stage or light Then it's back into the darkness with the mile markers flying Six hundred more to Denver and the drummer's already sleeping And I'll sit up front with Dutch and watch the whole world coming true Through a windshield full of insects and a sky of endless blue [Outro] (Shuffle winding out, cymbal wash, crowd whooping) Somebody buy Dutch a beer! He drove all night for you!
