I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
I'd sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He'd tousle my hair and say son, take a good look around, this is your hometown
Your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown

In '65 tension was running high at my high school
There was lots of fights between blacks and whites
There was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night, in the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed in a shotgun blast
And troubled times had come to my hometown
My hometown
My hometown
My hometown

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back
To your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown

Last night me and Kate, we laid in bed
Talking about getting out
Packing up our bags and maybe heading south
I'm thirty-five, we got a boy, of our own now
Last night, I sat him up behind the wheel
And said, "son, take a good look around
This is your hometown"