Springsteen Wednesday: Racing In The Street

BUY ALBUM | WEBSITE | Posted by David Debiak

For me the follow-up song to “Thunder Road” was “Racing In The Street”. This was what happened after Mary got in that car, left that town full of losers… to win. A reality check indeed. One line still sends chills up my spine every time I hear it.

“For all the shut down strangers and hot rod angels,
Rumbling through this promised land
Tonight my baby and me, we’re gonna ride to the sea
And wash these sins off our hands.”

The car, the race, the girl, it was the innocence, it was the passion you lived for, but time takes it’s toll and sooner or later work and love make you grow up and face the reality of this world… But you can always have that one thing that can help you slip away and forget, that can take you back to a time when it was fun, when you can remember why you’re here and why you still come home at night and wash up and go racing in the street.

I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor
She’s waiting tonight down in the parking lot
Outside the Seven-Eleven store
Me and my partner Sonny built her straight out of scratch
And he rides with me from town to town
We only run for the money, got no strings attached
We shut ‘em up and then we shut ‘em down

Tonight, tonight the strip’s just right
I wanna blow ‘em off in my first heat
Summer’s here and the time is right
For racin’ in the street

We take all the action we can meet
And we cover all the northeast state
When the strip shuts down we run ‘em in the street
From the fire roads to the interstate
Some guys they just give up living
And start dying little by little, piece by piece,
Some guys come home from work and wash up,
And go racin’ in the street.

Tonight, tonight the strip’s just right
I wanna blow ‘em all out of their seats
Calling out around the world, we’re going racin’ in the street.

I met her on the strip three years ago
In a Camaro with this dude from L.A.
I blew that Camaro off my back,
and drove that little girl away,
But now there’s wrinkles around my baby’s eyes
And she cries herself to sleep at night
When I come home the house is dark
She sighs, “Baby did you make it all right,”
She sits on the porch of her Daddy’s house
But all her pretty dreams are torn,
She stares off alone into the night
With the eyes of one who hates for just being born
For all the shut down strangers and hot rod angels,
Rumbling through this promised land
Tonight my baby and me, we’re gonna ride to the sea
And wash these sins off our hands.

Tonight, tonight the highway’s bright
Out of our way, mister, you best keep
‘Cause summer’s here and the time is right
For racin’ in the street.

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