Exit Number 9 [Glen Burtnik]

Exit Number Nine
Written by Glen Burtnik
Lead Vocals by Glen Burtnik

The place I'm from is on the Raritan River
South of Manhattan maybe 40 miles.
The girls look good and they can really deliver.
The boys know how to dress and they all got style.

That trip to California really made up my mind.
I turned around and headed home to exit number nine.
The working girls come out to turn the college boys on.
The way they dance, I swear they're working overtime.

One man's medicine's another's poison.
When Sissy's at the bar, I call it party time.
French Street's buzzzin', the freaks keep comin'
The kids are really something down on exit number nine.

Handy Andy made his high school honors,
Now he makes his living from his work on cars.
Auto detail for a hundred dollars,
And every night he blows it at the local bars.
He came to town for knowledge but he dropped out of college,
Now he's buffing polish down on exit number nine.

Down at Lee's and Tony's there's a brand new honey.
She started working weekends in the wintertime.
Sometimes I like to visit her when I got the money.
She tends to bend my ear about the dream she left behind.
She used to be an actress, now she's just a waitress,
Finishing her sentence out on exit number nine.

There's Bad Bobby and his angry posse,
They make their entrance coping their best self-destructive pose.
Here comes Danny and the glamorous Robby,
Living every evening like a fashion show.
Impersonating women or instigating crime,
It's hard to stir attention up on exit number nine.

So this is where I'm from and it's what I'm used to.
Here's where it all begins and ends for me.
I got no illusions 'bout what I might be missing
And I ain't looking further for the things I need.
'Cause I know who I am and I look out for what's mine
And all roads lead me home to exit number nine.

Interpretation

New Brunswick, New Jersey, sits on the Raritan River, just off Exit 9 on the New Jersey Turnpike. Glen is recounting memories of life in New Brunswick and why he still lives there.

Rutgers University is in New Brunswick, and apparently the local "working girls" (prostitutes?) like the college boys.  There are a few bars along French Street that could be where Sissy worked.  Characters can be found anywhere you look, like Handy Andy, who details cars and hangs out at the bars, and a new girl at Lee's and Tony's who gave up on being an actress and is now a waitress. Imagine "Bad Bobby and his angry posse" trying to look tough with a beer in one hand and a cigarette dangling from his lips, or Danny and Robby, always flamboyant, whether cross-dressing or just stirring up trouble.