Bruce Springsteen

I wanted to take the day off, but the news that Bruce Springsteen cancelled his show in North Carolina in opposition to their anti-LGBTQI law made me think otherwise. I've always loved The Boss, I have all of his albums, but since he's not gay and doesn't have any gay themed songs, he couldn't be part of this narrative. Now, by being a wonderful ally, he can.

This is written on the spur of the moment, so it won't be a career retrospective. Instead, I'll present 4 songs from my favorite album of his, "Born To Run", which is among my 10 all-time favorite albums.

The album takes you on a tour of the parts of America that a tourist would never visit. It appropriately begins with Thunder Road, where the young man, fed up with his small town, decides to embark on an adventure to the unknown, to which he invites his girlfriend to join him: "So Mary climb in, it's a town full of losers and we're pulling out of here to win!"

The album's title track, his absolute masterpiece, conjures images of Marlon Brando and his gang in "The Wild One".

"The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive

Everybody's out on the run tonight

But there's no place left to hide

Together Wendy we can live with the sadness

I'll love you with all the madness in my soul

H-Oh, Someday girl I don't know when

We're gonna get to that place

Where we really wanna go

And we'll walk in the sun

But till then tramps like us

Baby we were born to run"

Meeting Across The River segues into Jungleland, the two final songs of the album. Our hero is now in New York, a small-time loser who's trying to make it big, in true film noir fashion and will inevitably fail. Meeting Across The River with its orchestration that's unusual for a Rock song (just piano, trumpet and a double bass) and austere lyrics flows into the epic Jungleland, a track with a running time of almost 10 minutes, lush orchestration and poetic lyrics.

Here are the two songs performed together:

Here are the complete lyrics of Meeting Across The River:

Hey Eddie, can you lend me a few bucks

Tonight can you get us a ride

Gotta make it through the tunnel

Got a meeting with a man on the other side

Hey Eddie, this guy, he's the real thing

So if you want to come along

You gotta promise you won't say anything

'Cause this guy don't dance

The word's been passed, this is our last chance

We gotta stay cool tonight, Eddie

'Cause man, we got ourselves out on that line

And if we blow this one

They ain't gonna be looking for just me this time

And all we gotta do is hold up our end

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

Cherry says she's gonna walk

'Cause she found out I took her radio and hocked it

But Eddie, man, she don't understand

That two grand's practically sitting here in my pocket

Tonight's gonna be everything that I said

And when I walk through that door

I'm just gonna throw that money on the bed

She'll see this time I wasn't just talking

Then I'm gonna go out walking

Hey Eddie, can you catch us a ride

And here is the final half of the lyrics of Jungleland:

In the parking lot the visionaries dress in the latest rage

Inside the backstreet girls are dancing

To the records that the DJ plays

Lonely-hearted lovers struggle in dark corners

Desperate as the night moves on

Just one look and a whisper, and they're gone

Beneath the city, two hearts beat

Soul engines running through a night so tender

In a bedroom locked in whispers

Of soft refusal and then surrender

In the tunnels uptown, the Rat's own dream guns him down

As shots echo down them hallways in the night

No one watches when the ambulance pulls away

Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light

Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz

Between what's flesh and what's fantasy

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 a knife, they reach for their moment

And try to make an honest stand

But they wind up wounded, not even dead

Tonight in Jungleland

The other songs from the album are all great too and as for the rest of his big discography, the quality ranges from very good to absolutely brilliant. But these four songs in particular hold a special place in my soul. Please do check out the studio versions too.