My Favorite Bruce Songs

Getting ready for the Bruce Springsteen concert in Austin this past Thursday night I went through all of his studio albums and picked out my favorites. Yes, some of his biggest songs are missing. Yes, the list might change on another day. You'll see that I favor those songs with the tightest lyrics, that flow with the music, that make you want to sing along. Here they are, in chronological order. And here's the Spotify playlist.

I got into Bruce with his 1973 album, The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, and then soon went back and picked up his first album, from earlier in 1973, Greetings From Asbury Park. I love a lot of those songs but it wasn't until Born to Run came out in 1975 (the one that landed him on the covers of Newsweek and Time, back when that was a big thing) that I feel that Bruce tightened his songwriting and music and produced some of the best rock 'n' roll ever.

Thunder Road (1975)

This is Bruce's masterpiece, the lyrics are required learning for any would-be Bruce fan. He wrote this when he was about 25:

So you're scared and you're thinking

That maybe we ain't that young anymore

Show a little faith, there's magic in the night

You ain't a beauty but, hey, you're alright

Oh, and that's alright with me

Born to Run (1975)

For this song Bruce wanted to marry the power of a Roy Orbison vocal with a Phil Spector-type wall of sound. Has any song been more clear about what it's trying to say than this opening stanza?

In the day we sweat it out on the streets

Of a runaway American dream

At night we ride through the mansions of glory

In suicide machines

Sprung from cages on Highway 9

Chrome wheeled, fuel injected, and steppin' out over the line

Oh, baby this town rips the bones from your back

It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap

We gotta get out while we're young

'Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to run

The crazy thing, as we recently learned in his podcasts with Obama, is that Bruce probably didn't know how to drive when he wrote this! 

After his long legal fight to gain control of his publishing, which left him near broke, Bruce returned in 1978 to spit in the face of anyone who tried to hold him down with the album Darkness On the Edge of Town, which included three of my favorites.

Badlands (1978)

I might have shouted these words the loudest Thursday night, and yes, it's still no sin!

For the ones who have a notion, a notion deep inside

That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive

I wanna find one face that ain't looking through me

I wanna find one place, I wanna spit in the face of these

Badlands, you gotta live it everyday

Let the broken hearts stand as the price you've gotta pay

Keep movin' till it's understood

And these badlands start treating us good

 

The Promised Land (1978)

Only the dogs understand!

The dogs on Main Street howl 'cause they understand

If I could reach one moment into my hands

Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man

And I believe in a promised land

Big Man sax break and then: 

Well there's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor

I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm

Gonna be a twister to blow everything down

That ain't got the faith to stand its ground

Blow away the dreams that tear you apart

Blow away the dreams that break your heart

Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted

Bruce has shown us he has that faith for fifty years! 

Darkness On the Edge of Town (1978)

Does your spine tingle when Max hits the drum after the first verse and then, "Well if she wants to see me..."? Mine does.

Well they're still racing out at the Trestles

But that blood it never burned in her veins

Now I hear she's got a house up in Fairview

And a style she's trying to maintain

Well, if she wants to see me

You can tell her that I'm easily found

Tell her there's a spot out 'neath Abram's Bridge

And tell her

There's a darkness on the edge of town

There's a darkness on the edge of town

Bruce put out The River, a double-record set, in 1980. So many great songs but two, very different, songs have stayed with me.

Sherry Darling (1980)

Maybe Bruce's most fun song to sing along with, this non-PC song takes no prisoners! My daughter Dara always plays this for me on our way back to our Massachusetts lake house from Yankee Stadium to power our drive.

Your Mamma's yapping in the back seat

Tell her to push over and move them big feet

Every Monday morning I gotta drive her down to the unemployment agency

Well this morning I ain't fighting tell her I give up

Tell her she wins if she'll just shut up

But it's the last time that she's gonna be riding with me

You can tell her there's a hot sun beating on the black top

She keeps talking she'll be walking that last block

She can take a subway back to the ghetto tonight

Well I got some beer and the highway's free

And I got you, and baby, you've got me

Hey, hey, hey what you say, Sherry Darling?

Wreck on the Highway (1980)

This might be Bruce's tightest song. The story just flows:

Last night I was out driving

Coming home at the end of the working day

I was riding alone through the drizzling rain

On a deserted stretch of a county two-lane

When I came upon a wreck on the highway

There was blood and glass all over

And there was nobody there but me

As the rain tumbled down hard and cold

I seen a young man lying by the side of the road

He cried, "Mister, won't you help me please?"

An ambulance finally came and took him to Riverside

I watched as they drove him away

And I thought of a girlfriend or a young wife

And a state trooper knocking in the middle of the night

To say your baby died in a wreck on the highway

Sometimes I sit up in the darkness

And I watch my baby as she sleeps

Then I climb in bed and I hold her tight

I just lay there awake in the middle of the night
Thinking 'bout the wreck on the highway

In 1984 came the Born in the USA album, which made Bruce a superstar. All great songs but I'm picking just one.

My Hometown (1984)

Bruce wrote about his hometown in the late 60s. Almost exactly the same thing happened in my hometown, Ossining, NY. "There was nothing you could do", was exactly how I felt.

In '65 tension was running high

At my high school

There was a lot of fights

Between the black and white

There was nothing you could do

Two cars at a light on a Saturday night

In the back seat there was a gun

Words were passed, a shotgun blast

Troubled times had come

To my hometown

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows

And vacant stores

Seems like there ain't nobody

Wants to come down here no more

They're closing down the textile mill

Across the railroad tracks

Foreman says, these jobs are going, boys

And they ain't coming back

To your hometown

In 1987 Bruce released Brilliant Disguise, recorded during a time when his first marriage, to Julianne Phillips, was falling apart, and his relationship with his backup singer, Patti Scialfa, was beginning. These two songs show his increasing maturity and vulnerability about relationships.

Tougher Than the Rest (1987)

The road is dark and it's a thin thin line

But I want you to know I'll walk it for you any time

Maybe your other boyfriends couldn't pass the test

Well, if you're rough and ready for love

Honey, I'm tougher than the rest

Check out the video for this song for a real treat. While still officially married to Julianne you can see Bruce and Patti making goo-goo eyes at each other!

Walk Like a Man (1987)

Such a touching song, based on Bruce's relationship with his father, but doesn't it make you reflect on your own relationship with your father?

I remember how rough your hand felt on mine

On my wedding day

And the tears cried on my shoulder

I couldn't turn away

Well so much has happened to me

That I don't understand

All I can think of is being five years old following behind you at the beach

Tracing your footprints in the sand

Trying to walk like a man

By Our Lady Of The Roses

We lived in the shadow of the elms

I remember ma draggin' me and my sister up the street to the church

Whenever she heard those wedding bells

Well would they ever look so happy again

The handsome groom and his bride

As they stepped into that long black limousine

For their mystery ride

Well tonight you step away from me

And alone at the altar I stand

And as I watch my bride coming down the aisle I pray

For the strength to walk like a man

Well now the years have gone and I've grown

From that seed you've sown

But I didn't think there'd be so many steps

I'd have to learn on my own

Well I was young and I didn't know what to do

When I saw your best steps stolen away from you

Now I'll do what I can

I'll walk like a man

And I'll keep on walkin'

Bruce released two albums simultaneously in 1992, Human Touch and Lucky Town, without the E Street Band. These two come from Human Touch:

Human Touch (1992)

Incredible song about basic human needs. First Bruce says it in the words:

I ain't lookin' for praise or pity

I ain't comin' 'round searchin' for a crutch

I just want someone to talk to

And a little of that human touch

Just a little of that human touch

Then, with the guitar. Then the most important line:

Oh girl, that feeling of safety you prize

Well, it comes with a hard hard price

You can't shut off the risk and pain

Without losin' the love that remains

We're all riders on this train

I Wish I Were Blind (1982)

Some of Bruce's prettiest writing and most desperate singing, although I think you would have to say the character is stalking his ex! One of my favorite songs to sing along with.

I love to see the cottonwood blossom

In the early spring

I love to see the message of love

That the bluebird brings

But when I see you walkin' with him

Down along the strand

I wish I were blind

When I see you with your man   

 

I love to see your hair shining

In the long summer's light

I love to watch the stars fill the sky

On a summer night

The music plays you take his hand

I watch how you touch him as you start to dance

And I wish I were blind

When I see you with your man

We struggle here but all our love's in vain

Well these eyes that once filled me with your beauty

Now fill me with pain

And the light that once entered here

Is banished from me

And this darkness is all baby that my heart sees 

And though the world is filled

With the grace and beauty of God's hand

Oh I wish I were blind

When I see you with your man

 

1995's The Ghost of Tom Joad was Bruce's most political album. The writing on one song in particular is so crisp and tells such an important story it made this list.

Youngstown (1995)

Here in northeast Ohio, back in 1803

James and Danny Heaton found the ore that was lining Yellow Creek

They built a blast furnace here along the shore

And they made the cannonballs that helped the Union win the war

Here in Youngstown

Here in Youngstown

My sweet Jenny, I'm sinking down

Here, darling, in Youngstown

... 

Well, my daddy come on the Ohio works

When he come home from World War II

Now the yard's just scrap and rubble

He said "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do"

These mills, they built the tanks and bombs

That won this country's wars

We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam

Now we're wondering what they were dying for

Bruce watched the World Trade Towers collapse from the Jersey shore and released The Rising the following year. 

The Rising (2002)

The title song starts as a tribute to the first responders and ends in a prayer.

Can't see nothing in front of me

Can't see nothing coming up behind

Make my way through this darkness

I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me

Lost track of how far I've gone

How far I've gone, how high I've climbed

On my back's a sixty pound stone

On my shoulder, a half-mile of line

...

I see you Mary in the garden

In the garden of a thousand sighs

There's holy pictures of our children

Dancing in a sky filled with light

May I feel your arms around me

May I feel your blood mix with mine

A dream of life comes to me

Like a catfish dancing on the end of the line

Sky of blackness and sorrow (A dream of life)

Sky of love, sky of tears (A dream of life)

Sky of glory and sadness (A dream of life)

Sky of mercy, sky of fear (A dream of life)

Sky of memory and shadow (A dream of life)

Your burning wind fills my arms tonight

Sky of longing and emptiness (A dream of life)

Sky of fullness, sky of blessed life (A dream of life)

Come on up for the rising

Come on up, lay your hands in mine

Come on up for the rising

Come on up for the rising tonight

 

Mary's Place (2002)

I love this song for its energy, for its defiance in the face of tragedy, for its knowledge that music can heal a broken heart. It starts out as a house party:

I got seven pictures of Buddha, the prophet's on my tongue

Eleven angels of mercy sighing over that black hole in the sun

My heart's dark but it's rising, I'm pulling all the faith I can see

From that black hole on the horizon, I hear your voice calling me

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

Meet me at Mary's place, we're going to have a party

Meet me at Mary's place, we're going to have a party

Tell me how do we get this thing started?

Meet me at Mary's place

Meet me at Mary's place

 

Familiar faces around me, laughter fills the air

Your loving grace surrounds me, everybody's here

Furniture's out on the front porch, music's up loud

I dream of you in my arms, I lose myself in the crowd

 

I got a picture of you in my locket, I keep it close to my heart

This light shining in my breast, leading me through the dark

Seven days, seven candles in my window, lighting your way

Your favorite record's on the turntable, I drop the needle and pray (Turn it up)

And then all of a sudden we're at a concert

Band's counting out midnight, floor's rumbling loud (Turn it up)

Singer's calling up daylight, waiting for that shout from the crowd (Turn it up)

Waiting for that shout from the crowd (Turn it up)

Fast forward to the end of the decade, to another attack on Americans, this one by Americans. Bruce responded with Wrecking Ball.

Death To My Hometown (2012)

This extremely powerful song, in the form of an Irish jig, addresses the financial crisis, caused by men whose crimes have still gone unpunished. His response: rally the people to fight back through song!

Oh, no cannonballs did fly, no rifles cut us down

No bombs fell from the sky, no blood soaked the ground

No powder flash blinded the eye, no deathly thunder sound

But just as sure as the hand of God, they brought death to my hometown

They brought death to my hometown

No shells ripped the evening sky, no cities burning down

No armies stormed the shores for which we’d die

No dictators were crowned

I awoke from a quiet night, I never heard a sound

Marauders raided in the dark and brought death to my hometown, buys

Death to my hometown

 

They destroyed our families’ factories and they took our homes

They left our bodies on the plains, the vultures picked our bones

So listen up, my sonny boy, be ready for when they come

For they’ll be returning sure as the rising sun

Now get yourself a song to sing and sing it ’til you’re done

Yeah, sing it hard and sing it well

Send the robber barons straight to hell

The greedy thieves who came around

And ate the flesh of everything they found

Whose crimes have gone unpunished now

Who walk the streets as free men now

Bruce's most recent album of original material, Letter To You, has some of his finest writing. The title song definitely belongs on this list!

Letter To You (2020)

I view the letter as a summation of all the thoughts he's put in all his songs. We'll see if it represents the capstone of his career or just the encapsulation of the first 50 years!

I took all the sunshine and rain

All my happiness and all my pain

The dark evening stars

And the morning sky of blue

And I sent it in my letter to you