Cover art for No Surrender by Bruce Springsteen

No Surrender

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Jun. 4, 19843 viewers80.6K views

No Surrender Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Well, we busted out of class
Had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a three-minute record, baby
Than we ever learned in school

Tonight I hear the neighborhood drummer sound
I can feel my heart begin to pound
You say you're tired and you just want to close your eyes
And follow your dreams down

[Chorus 1]
Well, we made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter's night with a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender

[Verse 2]
Well, now young faces grow sad and old
And hearts of fire grow cold
We swore blood brothers against the wind
I'm ready to grow young again

And hear your sister's voice calling us home
Across the open yards
Well maybe we'll cut someplace of our own
With these drums and these guitars
[Chorus 2]
'Cause we made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Hey!

[Post-Chorus]
Li li li li li li li, li li-li li li
Li li li li li li li, li li-li li li
Li li li li li li li, li li-li li li
Li li li li li li li, li li-li li li

[Verse 3]
Now on the street tonight the lights grow dim
The walls of my room are closing in
There's a war outside still raging
You say it ain't ours anymore to win
I want to sleep beneath peaceful skies
In my lover's bed

With a wide open country in my eyes
And these romantic dreams in my head


[Chorus 2]
Because we made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender
No retreat, baby, no surrender
[Outro]
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh

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Genius Annotation

From “Beyond blood brothers: queer Bruce Springsteen” by Rosalie Zdzienicka Fanshel, “In the two songs ‘No Surrender’ and ‘Bobby Jean’, Springsteen expresses his fraternal desire for his best friend and bandmate Stevie Van Zandt on the occasion of Van Zandt’s departure from the E Street Band at the end of the Born in the U.S recording sessions in 1984. To accompany these songs, the BITUSA album credit lines end with ‘Buon viaggio, mio fratello, Little Steven’. ‘No Surrender’ celebrates the redemptive value of this rock ‘n’ roll friendship. Sung in a nostalgic past tense, Van Zandt’s departure heavily directs the song’s feeling.” (Fanshel, 367).

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