Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City Lyrics Meaning

This song is of a hitman who wants to retire but is compelled to do one last contract murder. It is about the internal wars of the organized crime.

The "Chicken Man" was Philadelphia mafioso Philip Testa, who was assassinated 1981 by a bomb. The police is tightening its grip on the crime, and although the protagonist wants to give up, his economic situation is bad and he agrees to do one more murder in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Atlantic City is known as a summer resort and gambling town, and it was popular amongst the mobsters. The protagonist has agreed to kill an enemy mobster there, but knows he can himself be killed or arrested as well. So he withdraws all his money and asks his wife to put her best dress on - if he has to go, they all could as well go in style.