Bruce Springsteen – The Line (Guitar)

C
I got my discharge from Fort Irwin 

                F                        C
took a place on the San Diego county line 

       F                C
felt funny bein' a civilian again 

                   G
it'd been some time 

      C
my wife had died a year ago 

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I was still tryin' to find my way back whole 

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I went to work for the INS on the line 

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with the California Border Patrol 

                                    F
Bobby Ramirez was a ten year veteran 

                    C
and we became friends 

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his family was from Guanajuato 

                                 G
so the job it was different for him 

                C
he said' "They risk death in the deserts and mountains" 

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pay all they got to the smugglers rings, 

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we send 'em home and they come right back again 

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Carl, hunger is a powerful thing." 

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Well I was good at doin' what I was told 

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kept my uniform pressed and clean 

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at night I chased their shadows 

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through the arroyos and ravines 

C
drug runners, farmers with their families, 

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young women with little children by their sides 

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come night we'd wait out in the canyons 

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and try to keep 'em from crossin' the line 

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she was in the holdin' pen 

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Our eyes met and she looked away 

                         G
then she looked back again 

     C
her hair was black as coal 

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her eyes reminded me of what I'd lost 

          F
she had a young child cryin' in her arms 

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and I asked, "Senora, is there anything I can do" 

          Am7
There's a bar in Tijuana 

F
where me and Bobby drink alongside 

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the same people we'd sent back the day before 

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we met there she said her name was Louisa 

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she was from Sonora and had just come north 

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we danced and I held her in my arms 

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and I knew what I would do 

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she said she had some family in Madera county 

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if she, her child and her younger brother could just get through 

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in the searchlights dusty glow 

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we'd rush 'em in our Broncos 

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and force 'em back down into the river below 

     C
she climbed into my truck 

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she leaned towards me and we kissed 

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as we drove her brothers shirt slipped open 

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and I saw the tape across his chest 

        Am7                F
We were just about on the highway 

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when Bobby's jeep come up in the dust on my right 

    Am7                   F
I pulled over and let my engine run 

            C             G
and stepped out into his lights 

   Am7
I felt myself movin' 

 F                          G     C
felt my gun restin' 'neath my hand 

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we stood there starin' at each other 

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as off through the arroyo she ran 

 F                         C
6 months later I left the line 

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I drifted to the central valley 

                            G
and took what work I could find 

   C
at night I searched the local bars 

F
and the migrant towns 

                  C
Lookin' for my Louisa 

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with the black hair fallin' down