Happy 60th birthday, Bruce.
One soft infested summer, me and Terry became friends
Trying in vain to breathe the fire we was born in
Catching rides to the outskirts, tying faith between our teeth
Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house, getting wasted in the heat
And hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
With a love so hard and filled with defeat
Running for our lives at night on them backstreetsSlow dancing in the dark on the beach at Stockton’s Wing
Where desperate lovers park, we sat with the last of the Duke Street Kings
Huddled in our cars, waiting for the bells that ring
In the deep heart of the night they set us loose of everything
To go running on the backstreets
Running on the backstreets
Terry, you swore we’d live forever
Taking it on them backstreets togetherEndless juke joints and Valentino drag
Where famous dancers scraped the tears up off the street, dressed down in rags
Running into the darkness, some hurt bad, some really dying
At night sometimes it seemed you could hear the whole damn city crying
Blame it on the lies that killed us, blame it on the truth that ran us down
You can blame it all on me, Terry, it don’t matter to me now
When the breakdown hit at midnight, there was nothing to say
But I hated him, and I hated you when you went awayLaying here in the dark, you’re like an angel on my chest
Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness
Remember all the movies, Terry, we’d go see
Trying to learn to walk like the heroes we thought we had to be
And after all this time, to find we’re just like all the rest
Stranded in the park and forced to confess
To hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
Where we swore forever friends
On the backstreets until the endHiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
This is the purest form of Bruce.
This was always one of my favorite Bruce songs. Sadly, I’ve never seen him do this live and I’ve been to a ton of shows since ’92. I’ve seen just about every song he does live(meaning anything more than a one off). I hope there is still time for this. Especially since Garry(ad his Tuba) is the key to this song live.
there is a youtube of a very old performance of it, but the embedding is disabled.
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Wild Billy’s Circus Story
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Thanks a million, Oui. The sound on that live version is awesome. What a performance!!
the album this is from, the wild, the innocent and the e street shuffle, and nebraska are my personal favorites of all that he’s done.
l really oughta replace the vinyl with new cd copies…the lp’s are pretty well worn.
Damn, that’s some good writing. Takes a lot for a song to work when it’s just being read. Somehow I’d kind of overlooked Springsteen’s writing brilliance, thinking his strength was at the performance/production end. Looks like my personal singer/songwriter top 3 is going to keep expanding ’til it’s a top 10.
Second only to Dylan, my friend.
At night in Jersey during the summer, if you aren’t overly far from the shore, you can hear Springsteen’s cry on the wind.