“For what are we without hope in our hearts / That someday we’ll drink from God’s blessed waters / And eat the fruit from the vine / I know love and fortune will be mine / Somewhere across the border.”

Why is it so great? Springsteen’s eternal theme of the runaway American dream runs through this song and the entire album it’s on, the Nebraska-esque “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” This song could be the immigrant’s version of any song on “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” with its enduring hope that America is the promised land, despite all the evidence to the contrary.