All I see are black lights
Rushing through like headlights
The screaming of the crowd tonight
Pulls me in just to let me go
All I have are bad nights
Wrapping knuckles, taping hands tight
The calm after a fist fight
Is the hollowest sound I know
I was born in the gutter from a mother just seventeen
No father or a brother in a world so hard and mean
I learned to fight before I learned to read
I could throw my hands with a devilish speed
And someday momma, you'll see, I'm going to be somebody
Sonny had a cot in the office of his downtown gym
I swept up, cleaned the locker rooms, and did some work for him
But a champion man needs champion clothes
I stole a few cars to earn a few rolls
I boxed every shadow in the darkness of a midnight mirror
And all I saw were black lights
Rushing through like headlights
The screaming of the crowd tonight
Pulls me in just to let me go
And all I have are bad nights
Wrapping knuckles, taping hands tight
The calm after a fist fight
Is the hollowest sound I know
I was twenty one and zero, top seed in the welterweight class
I was staying out all night, sobering up during morning mass
I was hurling myself at a break-neck speed
Amphetamines and the Apostles' Creed
They ran my picture in the paper with a headline that read
Title bout scheduled on the eve of Independence Day
I came out in a fury, I was hell bent on putting him away
The static rush of a blood-lust crowd
I was fighting to loose, I was fighting too proud
The last thing I remember was dropping my left on down, and spinning around
Staring at those black lights
Cold and lonely as a moonlight
Oh the crowd is going wild tonight
I give them more than they will ever know
And all I have are bad nights
My lungs are breathing smoke and dynamite
Oh my heart is aching and my head ain't right
And that's the feeling that I can't let go
All I see are black lights
Rushing through like headlights
The screaming of the crowd tonight
Pulls me in just to let me go
And all I have are bad nights
Wrapping knuckles, taping hands tight
The calm after a fist fight
Is the hollowest sound I know
It's the hollowest sound I know