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-menot 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 anticyclone 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, spit in the air, fell on the ground, asked wich was the way back home He said take a right at the light, keep going straight until right, 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 complaining 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 he'd 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 isGrowin' Up
I stood stonelike at midnight suspended in my masquerade I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said`Sit down'I stood up Ooh-ooh growin' up The flag of piracy flew from my mast my sails were set wing to wing I had a jukebox graduate for first mate she couldn't sail but she sure could sing I pushed B-52 and bombed `em with the blues with my gear set stubborn on standing I broke all the rules strafed my old high school never once gave thought to landing I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said`Come down'I threw up Ooh-ooh growin' up I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere and you know it's really hard to hold your breath I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared I was the cosmic kid Well my feet they finally took root in the earth but I got me a nice little place in the stars I swear I found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said`Sit down'I stood up Ooh-ooh growin' up Ooh-ooh growin' upMary Queen of Arkansas
Mary queen of Arkansas, it's not too early for dreamin' The sky is grown with cloud seed sown and a bastard's love can be redeeming Mary, my queen, your soft hulk is reviving No, you're not too late to desecrate, the servants are just rising Well I'm just a lonely acrobat, the live wire is my trade I've been a shine boy for your acid brat and a wharf rat of your state Mary, my queen, your blows for freedom are missing You're not man enough for me to hate or woman enough for kissing The big top is for dreamers, we can take the circus all the way to the border And the gallows wait for martyrs whose papers are in order But I was not born to live to die and you were not born for queenin' It's not too late to infiltrate, the servants are just leavin' Mary queen of Arkansas, your white skin is deceivin' You wake and wait to lie in bait and you almost got me believin' But on your bed Mary I can see the shadow of a noose I don't understand how you can hold ma so tight and love me so damn loose But I know a place where we can go, Mary Where I can get a good job and start all over again clean I got contacts deep in Mexico where the servants have been seenDoes This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?
Hey bus driver keep the change, bless your children, give them names, Don't trust men who walk with canes, Drink this and you'll grow wings on your feet Broadway Mary, Joan Fontaine, advertiser on a downtown train Christmas crier bustin' cane, He's in love again. Where dock worker's dreams mix with panther's schemes to someday own the rodeo Tainted women in Vistavision perform for out-of-state kids at the late show. Wizard imps and sweat sock pimps, interstellar mongrel nymphs Rex said that lady left him limp. Love's like that (sure it is). Queen of diamonds, ace of spades newly discovered lovers of the everglades They take out a full page ad in the trades to announce their arrival And Mary Lou she found out how to cope, she rides to heaven on a gyroscope The Daily News asks her for the dope She says "Man, the dope's that there's still hope" Senorita, Spanish rose, wipes her eyes and blows her nose Uptown in Harlem she throw a rose to some lucky, young matador.Lost in the Flood
The ragamuffin gunner is returnin' home like a hungry runaway He walks through town all alone He must be from the fort he hears the high school girls say His countryside's burnin' with wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide The hit and run, plead sanctuary, `neath a holy stone they hide They're breakin' beams and crosses with a spastic's reelin' perfection Nuns run bald through Vatican halls pregnant, pleadin' immaculate conception And everybody's wrecked on Main Street from drinking unholy blood Sticker smiles sweet as gunner breathes deep, his ankles caked in mud And I said "Hey gunner man that's quicksand, that's quicksand that ain't mud Have you thrown your senses to the war or did you lose them in the flood?" That pure American brother, dull-eyed and empty-faced Races Sundays in Jersey in a Chevy stock super eight He rides `er low on the hip, on the side he's got Bound For Glory in red, white and blue flash paint He leans on the hood telling racing stories, the kids call him Jimmy The Saint Well the blaze and noise boy, he's gunnin' that bitch loaded to blastin' point He rides head first into a hurricane and disappears into a point And there's nothin' left but some blood where the body fell That is, nothin' left that you could sell Just junk all across the horizon, a real highwayman's farewell And he said "Hey kid, you think that's oil? Man, that ain't oil that's blood" I wonder what he was thinking when he hit that storm Or was he just lost in the flood? Eighth Avenue sailors in satin shirts whisper in the air Some storefront incarnation of Maria, she's puttin' on me the stare And Bronx's dest apostle stands with his hand on his own hard ware Everything stops, you hear five, quick shots, the cops come up for air And now the whiz-bang gang from uptown, they're shootin' up the street And that cat from the Bronx starts lettin' loose but he gets blown right off his feet And some kid comes blastin' round the corner but a cop puts him right away He lays on the street holding his leg screaming something in Spanish Still breathing when I walked away And somebody said "Hey man did you see that? His body hit the street with such a beautiful thud" I wonder what the dude was sayin' or was he just lost in the flood? Hey man, did you see that, those poor cats are sure messed up I wonder what they were gettin' into, or were they just lost in the flood?The Angel
The angel rides with hunch-backed children, poison oozing from his engine Wieldin' love as a lethal weapon, on his way to hubcap heaven Baseball cards poked in his spokes, his boots in oil he's patiently soaked He roadside attendant nervously jokes as the angel's tires strokes his precious pavement The interstate's choked with nomadic hordes in Volkswagen vans with full running boards dragging great anchors Followin' dead-end signs into the sores The angel rides by humpin' his hunk metal whore Madison Avenue's claim to fame in a trainer bra with eyes like rain She rubs against the weather-beaten frame and asks the angel for his name Off in the distance the marble dome reflects across the flatlands with a naked feel off into parts unknown The woman strokes his polished chrome and lies beside the angel's bonesFor You
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 tomleap 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 They ragged, jagged melody she still clings to me like a leach But that medal you wore on your chest always got in the way Like a little girl with a traphy 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 And your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges freeSpirit in the Night
Crazy Janey and her mission man were back in the alley tradin' hands `Long came Wild Billy with his friend G-man all duded up for Saturday night Billy slammed on his coaster brakes and said anybody wanna go on up to Greasy Lake It's about a mile down on the dark side of Route 88 I got a bottle of rose so let's try it We'll pick up Hazy Davy and Killer Joe and I'll take you all out to where the gypsy angels go They're built like light And they dance like spirits in the night (all night) in the night (all night) Oh you don't know what they can do to you Spirits in the night, in the night Stand up now and let it shoot through you Well now Wild Billy was a crazy cat and he shook some dust out of his coonskin cap He said "Trust some of this it'll show you where you're at or at least it'll help you really feel it" By the time we made it up to Greasy Lake I had my head out the window and Janey's fingers in the cake I think I really dug her `cause I was too loose to fake I said "I'm hurt" she said "Honey let me heal it" And we danced all night to a soul fairy band And she kissed me just right like only a lonely angel can She felt just right just like as sweet as a spirit in the night In the night baby don't know what she do to you Spirits in the night, in the night Stand up now and let her shoot right through you Now the night grew bright and the stars threw light in Billy and Davy Dancin' in the moonlight We were down near the water in a stone mud fight Killer Joe'd passed out on the lawn Well Hazy Davy got really hurt he crawled into the lake in just his socks and a shirt Me and Crazy Janey were makin' love in the dirt singin' our birthday songs Janey said "Hey little brother don't you think it's time now we go" So we closed our eyes and said goodbye to gypsy angel row felt just right Together we moved like spirits in the night, all night Baby don't know what it do to you Spirits in the night, all night Stand up now and let it shoot right through youIt's 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 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 downtown boys sure talk gritty It's so hard to be a saint in the city I was the king of the alley 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 A backstreet gambler with the luck to lose And when the heat came down 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 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 outa that hole and back up on the street And them South Side 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 cityNOTES
Bruce Springsteen: Acoustic guitar, Electric guitar, Conga, Harmonica, Bass on: "Blinded By The Light", and "Spirit in the Night" Vincent "Loper" Lopez: drums Clarence Clemmons: Sax, Backgruond Vocals Gary Tallent: Bass David Sancious: Piano, Organ Harold Wheeler: Piano on "Blinded By The Light" Richard Davis - Upright Bass on "The Angel" Produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos for Laurel Canyon Ltd. All selections written and arranged by Bruce Springsteen Recorded at: 914 Sound Studios, Blauvelt, New Tork. Engineered by: Louis Lehav. Remixed by: Jack Ashkinazy at Columbia Sound Studios The Selections are ASCAP. Cover design: John Berg/Front cover photograph Courtesy of Tichonor Bros., Inc., Boston, 02130 Back cover photograph: Fred Lombardi