Favorite Springsteen line...

You ain't a beauty but hey you're all right and thats all right with me....

that it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive..."

That one got me through my teens. :hi:

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edit, your sig line is hysterical!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

A real Ace in the hole...

But he did make life interesting...

"Lonesome Day"

This storm'll blow through by and by
House is on fire, Viper's in the grass
A little revenge and this too shall pass
This too shall pass, I'm gonna pray
Right now all I got's this lonesome day

But I remember us riding in my brother's car
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
They haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse, that sends me

I was so melodramatic back then...

I have to say this is my favorite Bruce song...


Funny, my senior prom theme song was " Glory Days" ... heh... I guess you can tell how old I am now!

so sad, that one and Hungry Heart always had me scratching my head. :(

Then I got Mary pregnant, and man that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse
And the judge put it all to rest
No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle
No flowers no wedding dress


**One of my best friends in college got his girlfriend pregnant when he was nineteen. He was a HUGE Springsteen fan and we used to listen to this song over and over. Everytime I hear it, I think of him...

I like the lines in the song that go something like this: Hey little girl, are you all alone...I wake up in the middle of the night with a railroad train running in a groove in the middle of my head...

Can't remember the name of the song!

It was featured prominently in a movie about a Vietnam vet.......

I'm sure you know it......

:hi:

is the name of the song..And it is my favorite boss tune
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wo1npZWR5qk

http://youtube.com/watch?v=t6R77eGx8xM

I LOVE this song!!

GREAT video.....thank you for posting it.......

:hug:

top five BRRUUUUCCE song

For some reason I just couldn't do any other song when we were playing out...

Definitely in the top five! :headbang:

Good song!!


:)

P.S I loved seeing your pics from your vacation!! They were GREAT!

Yes, very good song!

And, thank you for enjoying my pics! I had fun taking them...:hi:

From the song "Growing Up" on Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J..

http://www.myths.com/pub/lyrics/springsteen_gfapnj.html#growin_up

that is a great song, one of his best, lyrically. :hi:

The lyrics are very Dylanesque, and the bleak world view feels like something out of a Scorsese film.

Manfred Mann, of all people, remade some of the songs. :shrug:

I also like Springstee's version of "Blinded by the Light" better, too.

It drives me nuts that he changed his whole writing style because of that comparison to Dylan, he was called 'the new Dylan' and he had always written the lyrics previous to the music which was why they (the lyrics) were so strong and could stand on their own. When the critics started calling him that he began starting with the music first and said "I never wrote that way again" referring to his way of writing above. I don't really understand his logic, being compared to Dylan is not a bad thing and technically he was a better writer than Dylan with some of those earlier songs because the poetic devices he used like consonance and assonance and feminine rhyme are a whole lot harder than Dylan's straight masculine rhyme. I really wish he'd continued in that vein but he does have great songs after the change even with the sparser lyrics; songs like "I'm on Fire" and "Tunnel of Love" may not be lyrics masterpieces like the early stuff but they do capture certain emotional states very well. I really think what he was trying to say (he talks about it in his book "Songs" that has all his lyrics in it) is that he wanted to be a voice for the working class experience and he was afraid the Dylan comparison was gearing him toward the middle class folk-experience which he didn't identify with.

For example, I might be waiting for the Metrobus and start grinning as I think, "Papa's on the corner, waiting for the bus/Mama, she's home in the window, waiting up for us."

The songs on Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ; The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle; Born to Run; and Darkness on the Edge of Town really stand up well.

I'm old enough to have been aghast when Ronald Reagan tried to invoke Springsteen's lyrics; people really bought into the whole Reagan optimism hooey, and Springsteen, as a friend of mine put it in those days, was basically saying the American dream is a crock.

I was so pissed about that, still rankles me when I think about it. How stupid can you be to not to understand that "I'm a long-gone Daddy in the USA" isn't a patriotic lyric. :eyes:

Remember "Hard to be a Saint (in the City)"

I had skin like leather and the diamond-hard look of a cobra
I was born blue and weathered but I burst just like a supernova
I could walk like Brando right into the sun
Then dance just like a Casanova
With my blackjack and jacket and hair slicked sweet
Silver star studs on my duds just like a Harley in heat
When I strut down the street I could feel its heartbeat
The sisters fell back and said "Don't that man look pretty"
The cripple on the corner cried out "Nickels for your pity"
Them gasoline boys downtown sure talk gritty
It's so hard to be a saint in the city

I was the king of the alley, mama I could talk some trash
I was the prince of the paupers crowned downtown at the beggar's bash
I was the pimp's main prophet, I kept everything cool
Just a backstreet gambler with the luck to lose
And when the heat came down and it was left on the ground
The devil appeared like Jesus through the steam in the street
Showin' me a hand I knew even the cops couldn't beat
I felt his hot breath on my neck as I dove into the heat
It's so hard to be a saint when you're just a boy out on the street

And the sages of the subway sit just like the living dead
As the tracks clack out the rhythm, their eyes fixed straight ahead
They ride the line of balance and hold on by just a thread
But it's too hot in these tunnels, you can get hit up by the heat
You get up to get out at your next stop but they push you back down in your seat
Your heart starts beatin' faster as you struggle to your feet
Then you're out of that hole and back up on the street

And them Southside sisters sure look pretty
The cripple on the corner cries out "Nickels for your pity"
And them downtown boys sure talk gritty
It's so hard to be a saint in the city...

I just love that...I can't see why a Dylan comparison would put him off writing like that. That in itself doesn't even need music.

If I remember correctly, "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" was used to establish character of the Sheik (Vincent Spano). What a great song!

him in concert ...

From "Reno"

She bought me another whisky
Said "here's to the best you ever had"
We laughed and made a toast
It wasn't the best I ever had
Not even close

Blinded by the Light


Madman drummers bummers and Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder feelin' kinda older I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing the calliope crashed to the ground
Some all-hot half-shot was headin' for the hot spot snappin' his fingers clappin' his hands
And some fleshpot mascot was tied into a lover's knot with a whatnot in her hand
And now young Scott with a slingshot finally found a tender spot and throws his lover in the sand
And some bloodshot forget-me-not whispers daddy's within earshot save the buckshot turn up the band

And she was blinded by the light
Cut loose like a deuce another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
She got down but she never got tight, but she'll make it alright

Some brimstone baritone anti-cyclone rolling stone preacher from the east
He says: "Dethrone the dictaphone, hit it in its funny bone, that's where they expect it least"
And some new-mown chaperone was standin' in the corner all alone watchin' the young girls dance
And some fresh-sown moonstone was messin' with his frozen zone to remind him of the feeling of romance

Yeah he was blinded by the light
Cut loose like a deuce another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
He got down but she never got tight, but he's gonna make it tonight

Some silicone sister with her manager's mister told me I got what it takes
She said I'll turn you on sonny, to something strong if you play that song with the funky break,
And go-cart Mozart was checkin' out the weather chart to see if it was safe to go outside
And little Early-Pearly came in by her curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride,
Oh, some hazard from Harvard was skunked on beer playin' backyard bombardier
Yes and Scotland Yard was trying hard, they sent a dude with a calling card,
he said, do what you like, but don't do it here
Well I jumped up, turnedaround, spit in the air, fell on the ground
Asked him which was the way back home
He said take a right at the light, keep goin' straight until night, and then boy, you're on your own

And now in Zanzibar a shootin' star was ridin' in a side car hummin' a lunar tune
Yes, and the avatar said blow the bar but first remove the cookie jar we're gonna teach those boys to laugh too soon

And some kidnapped handicap was complainin' that he caught the clap from some mousetrap he bought last night,

Well I unsnapped his skull cap and between his ears I saw
a gap but figured he'd be all right

He was just blinded by the light
Cut loose like a deuce another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun
Oh but mama that's where the fun is

Best line IMO 'mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun- oh but mama that's where the fun is!

I like "For you" as well, they are both at the top of my list of favorites of his

Princess cards she sends me with her regards
barroom eyes shine vacancy, to see her you gotta look hard
Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted
To her Cheshire smile I'll stand on file, she's all I ever wanted.
But you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts
honey, get your carpetbaggers off my back
you wouldn't even give me time to cover my tracks.
You said, "Here's your mirror and your ball and jacks".
But they're not what I came for, and I'm sure you see that too
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
and your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free

Crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
reveal yourself all now to me girl while you've got the strength to speak
Cause they're waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks
But I could give it all to you now if only you could ask.
And don't call for your surgeon even he says it's too late
It's not your lungs this time, it's your heart that holds your fate
Don't give me money, honey, I don't want it back
you and your pony face and your union jack
well take your local joker and teach him how to act
I swear I was never that way even when I really cracked
Didn't you think I knew that you were born with the power of a locomotive
able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?
And your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
you could laugh and cry in a single sound.

And your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the god?

You were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
Remember how I poured salt on your tongue and hung just out of reach
And the band they played the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
That ragged, jagged melody she still clings to me like a leech.
But that medal you wore on your chest always got in the way
like a little girl with a trophy so soft to buy her way
We were both hitchhikers but you had your ear tuned to the roar
of some metal-tempered engine on an alien, distant shore
So you, left to find a better reason than the one we were living for
and it's not that nursery mouth I came back for
It's not the way you're stretched out on the floor
cause I've broken all your windows and I've rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores?
And you should know that's true...
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency

edgy and dull and cut a six-inch valley
through the middle of my soul

running through the middle of my head.

only you can cool my desire
oh woh -- oah i'm on fi--re

...that ain't got the faith to stand its ground" - from "The Promised Land"

And a close second:

"Everything dies, baby, that's a fact, but maybe everything that dies some day comes back" - from "Atlantic City"

Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost andbrokenhearted...

ALL THAT HEAVEN WILL ALLOW

I got a dollar in my pocket
there ain't a cloud up above
I got a picture in a locket
that says baby I love you
Well if you didn't look then boys
then fellas don't go lookin' now
Well here she comes a-walkin'
all that heaven will allow

Say hey there mister bouncer
now all I wanna do is dance
But I swear I left my wallet
back home in my workin' pants
C'mon Slim slip me in man
I'll make it up to you somehow
I can't be late I got a date
with all that heaven will allow

Rain and storm and dark skies
well now they don't mean a thing
If you got a girl that loves you
and who wants to wear your ring
So c'mon mister trouble
we'll make it through you somehow
We'll fill this house with all the love
all that heaven will allow

Now some may wanna die young man
young and gloriously
Get it straight now mister
hey buddy that ain't me
'Cause I got something on my mind
that sets me straight and walkin' proud
And I want all the time
all that heaven will allow

so here's something different:

Well my daddy come on the 0hio works
When he come home from world war two
Now the yards just scrap and rubble
He said, "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do"
These mills they built the tanks and bombs
That won this country's wars
We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam
Now we're wondering what they were dyin' for


And another:

You grew up where young girls they grow up fast
You took what you were handed and left behind what was asked
but what they asked baby wasn't right
you didn't have to live that life,
I was gonna be your Romeo you were gonna be my Juliet
These days you don't wait on Romeo's
you wait on that welfare check
and on all the pretty things that you can't ever have
and on all the promises

and one more:

Here stuff this in your pocket
It'll look like you're carrying a friend
And remember, just don't smile
Change your shirt, 'cause tonight we got style

That line always was cool...

A symphony, that song...

From the Monongahela valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalachia
The story’s always the same
Seven hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world’s changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name

--Youngstown, one of my favorite springsteen songs

Poor man wanna be rich
Rich man wanna be king
And the King ain't satisfied til he rules everything

Also from "My Hometown"

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill across the tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back

Reminded me of when the mill shut down and my town began to die. Now it's totally revived

I paraphrase, but it was some betweens song patter about not doing acid because if he ever saw God he'd probably pick a fight. Funny stuff. I forget what song it was in reference to.

I stood stone like at midnight...

Suspended in my masquarade...

And I combed my hair until it was just right...

And comanded the night brigade...

baby

Y'now, that line

I'm paraphrasing. He did this at a concert in 1984.
"I heard the President was a fan. I wonder which album of mine he's been listening to. Evidently not this one."

Then he played Johnny 99, the song about the laid-off auto worker who goes on a shooting rampage

...for tellin' fortunes better than they do."

This gun's for hire even if we're just dancin' in the dark.

Show me somebody who ain't
Yeah I know I ain't nobody's bargain
But hell a little touch-up
And a little paint...

(from "Human Touch")

from 'Human Touch'

My quote comes from Tunnel of Love

"You've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above."

"You're momma's yappin' in the back seat, tell her to shove over and move them big feet. Every Monday morning I gotta drive her to the unemplyment agency..."

Springsteen-- The Best Ever.

SHERRY DARLING

Your Mamma's yappin' in the back seat
Tell her to push over and move them big feet
Every Monday morning I gotta drive her down to the unemployment agency
Well this morning I ain't fighting tell her I give up
Tell her she wins if she'll just shut up
But it's the last time that she's gonna be ridin' with me

You can tell her there's a hot sun beatin' on the black top
She keeps talkin' she'll be walkin' that last block
She can take a subway back to the ghetto tonight
Well I got some beer and the highway's free
And I got you, and baby you've got me.
Hey, hey, hey what you say Sherry Darlin'

Now there's girls melting on the beach
And they're so fine but so out of reach
Cause I'm stuck in traffic down here on 53rd street
Now Sherry my love for you is real
But I didn't count on this package deal
And baby this car just ain't big enough for her and me

So you can tell her there's a hot sun beatin' on the black top
She keeps talkin' she'll be walkin' that last block
She can take a subway back to the ghetto tonight
Well I got some beer and the highway's free
And I got you, and baby you've got me.
Hey, hey, hey what you say Sherry Darlin'

Well let there be sunlight, let there be rain
Let the brokenhearted love again
Sherry we can run with our arms open before the tide
To all the girls down at Sacred Heart
And all you operators back in the Park
Say hey, hey, hey what you say Sherry Darlin'
Hey, hey, hey, what you say Sherry Darlin'
Oh come on
Say, hey, hey, hey what you say Sherry Darlin'

Rosalita

edit- can't type with one hand

From WHEN YOU'RE ALONE.

If there's a chance we'll make it big somehow, baby what else can we do now?

It's like one looong line, but it's probably the best imagery he ever came up with...

"And the poets down here
Don't write nothing at all
They just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night
They reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand
But they wind up wounded
Not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland"

Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight against the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom, I'll be there.
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me."

Yeah I know it's from the Grapes of Wrath, but it was my favorite that hadn't already been mentioned. God I love Bruce.

but to get to Candy's room you gotta walk the darkness of Candy's hall
Strangers from the city call my baby's number and they bring her toys
When I come knocking she smiles pretty she knows I wanna be Candy's boy
There's a sadness hidden in that pretty face
A sadness all her own from which no man can keep Candy safe

I'm thirty-five,
I got a boy of my own now.
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel
and said, "Son, take a good look around.
This is your hometown.

That lyric just brings out such vivid imagery.

It's WRAPPED up like a douchebag in the odor in the night.

Or have you been back for awhile and I've just been slack in noticing? :)
Anyway...it's a real cool and welcome thing to read a post from you

Yeah, I was gone for a while. I just came back. Hope all is well with you and yours!

:toast:

Woke up this morning my house was cold
Checked out the furnace she wasn't burnin'
Went out and hopped in my old Ford
Hit the engine but she ain't turnin'
We've given each other some hard lessons lately
But we ain't learnin'
We're the same sad story that's a fact
One step up and two steps back

Bird on a wire outside my motel room
But he ain't singin'
Girl in white outside a church in June
But the church bells they ain't ringing
I'm sittin' here in this bar tonight
But all I'm thinkin' is
I'm the same old story same old act
One step up and two steps back

It's the same thing night on night
Who's wrong baby who's right
Another fight and I slam the door on
Another battle in our dirty little war
When I look at myself I don't see
The man I wanted to be
Somewhere along the line I slipped off track
I'm caught movin' one step up and two steps back

There's a girl across the bar
I get the message she's sendin'
Mmm she ain't lookin' to married
And me well honey I'm pretending
Last night I dreamed I held you in my arms
The music was never-ending
We danced as the evening sky faded to black
One step up and two steps back

and try to make it real
You wake up in the night,
with a fear so real,
You Spend your life waiting,
for a moment that just don’t come,
Don’t waste your time waiting"

she makes sheena of the jungle look meek and mild."

CRUSH ON YOU

My feets were flyin' down the street just the other night
When a Hong Kong special pulled up at the light
What was inside, man, was just c'est magnifique
I wanted to hold the bumper and let her drag me down the street

CHORUS
Ooh, ooh, I gotta crush on you
Ooh, ooh, I gotta crush on you
Ooh, ooh, I gotta crush on you tonight

Sometimes I spot a little stranger standing 'cross the room
My brain takes a vacation just to give my heart more room
For one kiss, darling I swear everything I would give
Cause you're a walking, talking reason to live

CHORUS

Well now she might be the talk of high society
She's probably got a lousy personality
She might be a heiress to Rockefeller
She might be a waitress or a bank teller
She makes the Venus de Milo look like she's got no style
She make Sheena of the Jungle look meek and mild
I need a quick shot, Doc, knock me off my feet
Cause I'll be minding my own business walking down the street... watchout!