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Leave it to Springsteen to take a melancholy James Taylor song and turn it on its head. I’m a fan of James Taylor’s version, however, it paints a different picture with the same words. When I listen to James’ version I hear a sadness behind this character, when I listen/watch Bruce play it you can feel an anger and desperation. I found it interesting how he interpreted it. Amazing job.

BUY ALBUM | WEBSITE | Posted by David Debiak

I can remember one night driving home from the city on the NJ Turnpike, rain was coming down sideways and it was hot as hell out. I fumbled around looking for something to play, I just put in the first thing I could grab and it wound up being Greetings From Asbury Park. I immediately put on this song, lit a cigarette and cracked a window to let some of that steamy air in. Sometimes you can hear a song 50 times and then one day for whatever reason it hits you hard. For me it was on a hot Summer’s night and I was lost in the flood on the NJ turnpike… makes sense that it would happen that way I guess.

The kids call him Jimmy The Saint.

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.

This is still one of my favorite songs and albums by Bruce. I chose to feature this one because the content is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it. When I first heard this record I had long given up on the hope that Bruce would do something truly great again in my lifetime, I was proven wrong.

I’ll never forget the day I bought this record. At the time I had a job detailing cars in the dead of winter, I was broke off my ass and struggling like hell to find myself as a musician and person for that matter. From the first words to the end of the record I was captivated, inspired and moved. I felt like it spoke directly to me.

For those who are unfamiliar with the book,  Tom Joad is the main character in The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck, one of my favorite books and movies, so this song really struck a chord.

Purchase song @ Amazon

From Wikipedia…

“The Del-Vikings, also known as The Dell-Vikings (the name was variously spelled with and without the hyphen), is an American doo-wop musical group who recorded several hit singles in the 1950s and continued to record and tour with various lineups in later decades. The group was notable for being one of the few racially integrated musical groups to attain success in the 1950s.

“Come Go with Me” is a song written by C. E. Quick (aka Clarence Quick), an original member of the American doo-wop vocal group The Del-Vikings. The song was originally recorded by The Del-Vikings in 1956 and was released on Fee Bee Records. When the group signed with Dot Records in 1957, the song became a hit, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart[1] and becoming the group’s highest-charting song. The song was later featured in the films American Graffiti (1973) and Stand by Me (1986)”

When I was a kid there was nothing I looked forward to more than going out and getting a new record and to this day I can still feel that same rush when I find what I’m looking for. I’d buy the record when it came out so there was an anticipation of not knowing what it was going to be like (unlike nowadays when you can stream it or download it months before it’s even released). There was also a code of conduct you had with vinyl’s: if you treated them with respect you would get the same in return. You had to clean them just right, you had to know how to drop the needle down in just the right place, you had to put them back in their sleeves, etc… You had large album artwork to stare at (so you could read the license plate number on the car on the back of the Abbey Road cover [LMW 28IF]), the lyric sheets were like a book and I read every word to every song as it played, never skipping ahead.

Now everyone should have a place of refuge, somewhere where it was just them and God. Mine was the living room, my record player was the alter, the music was the sermon and I would worship it there for hours upon hours. There was a long time in my life when it got away from me, I switched to CD’s so I could listen to them in my car, my record player wound up in the garbage and like everyone else I moved along without stopping to think about it. I’ve since learned a valuable lesson and that was to be aware of the rituals that make me happy and to not fix what’s not broken.

So these days I’m one of the few stragglers in the store, rummaging through stacks of records waiting for that one cover to jump out and grab me. Every so often an older lady will come in and say “Do you have the new Celine Dion tape?” (they mean CD and the owner never corrects them… he gave up). Hopefully you’re like me and you still share that passion for having a relationship with your music.

Ever wonder why the music industry is in the shitter?  It’s because they sell a lot of shit.

It takes a while for pop culture to catch up to me, something I’m rather proud of.  I finally saw these little jerk-offs for the first time over the weekend…

Not only is this song horrendous but there’s a band playing it for them in the background.  Those guitars aren’t plugged into anything.  So basically the only thing they needed to do was sing… and they couldn’t even pull that off.  I’m usually tolerant of music when I realize that it’s demographic is children, I understand it’s not meant for me, but this is embarrassing to the human race.  This should offend parents who want their kids to grow up with some understanding of culture.  The following is a comment left on the video’s YouTube page… “OMG that opening picture is so hot! They all look handsome!” Okay I understand that, cute kids, little girls like watching them jump around in dopey outfits, I lived through the New Kids On The Block… I get it… but here’s my problem:  Can’t they find cute kids who can carry a tune or at least dance?

I’m most embarrassed by their purity rings (they wear rings to symbolize their virginity).  I don’t trust that, it makes no sense.  What budding teenage boy playing “rock” music for a bunch of screaming little girls wants that?  Not true, no way, total bullshit.  I would almost forgive the whole thing if they were screwing everything in sight, then at least it would be funny on some level.  But it’s not funny, it’s sad that this is an acceptable form of entertainment in this or any country.

This is a video of a teen idol from 1959:

Now you mean to tell me that no one out there can do this anymore?  Of course it’s Eddie Cochran, but still, what teen idol does anything anywhere near this good?  Our standards have plummeted to an all time low and it has been on the decline for so long.  Last year I met a kid who bragged to me about how he plays Guitar Hero for several hours everyday.  I told him if he spent the same amount of time playing the real guitar he would be awesome and he could play for a real audience one day, filled with humans.  I don’t think he gave a shit… at all.