Like a Prayer
Musing on the Bruce Springsteen trilogy, which I didn't realize was a trilogy until a few minutes ago.
Let's start with Woody Guthrie, or Bob Dylan, or whoever it was that Bruce Springsteen was supposed to me when he was originally marketed. It turns out that Bruce was instead a rocker, with guitars and saxophones and stuff like that who played really big arenas and eventually turned out trash songs like "Hungry Heart."
Time to regroup.
Well in advance of Johnny Cash, Springsteen holed up somewhere (exactly where is unclear), started the four-track recorder, and started singing. The resulting collection, Nebraska, was danged bleak.
For me, the highlight of the album was at the end of Side 1 (remember when records had sides), with the song "State Trooper." Over a repetitive, mind-numbing guitar riff, Bruce sings and whoops and hollers about a man driving through the middle of the night, worried about being stopped by Mister State Trooper.
Before the last whoop, Bruce sings the following:
In the wee wee hours your mind gets hazy, radio relay towers lead me to my baby
Radio's jammed up with talk show stations
It's just talk, talk, talk, talk, till you lose your patience
Mister state trooper, please don't stop me
Hey, somebody out there, listen to my last prayer
Hiho silver-o, deliver me from nowhere
A couple of songs later, we end up somewhere much less haunted. This is rocker Bruce, leaning against the souped up car, playing the guitar, bragging up a storm. It's called "Open All Night," but there are clear lyrical parallels. Here's how THIS song ends:
Your eyes get itchy in the wee wee hours sun's just a red ball risin' over them refinery towers
Radio's jammed up with gospel stations lost souls callin' long distance salvation
Hey, mister deejay, woncha hear my last prayer hey, ho, rock'n'roll, deliver me from nowhere
End of subject, or so I thought. I pretty much haven't followed Bruce since Born in the USA (which is like Nebraska, only louder). So I was a little surprised when I ran across the lyrics to this one track, "Living On The Edge Of The World," from a 1998 album entitled "Tracks." The following lyrics aren't at the end of the song, but are scattered throughout:
...Radio, radio, hear my tale of heartbreak
New Jersey in the morning like a lunar landscape
Got a counter girl at the Exit 24 HoJo
Down past the refinery towers where the great black river flows...
Radio's jammed with gospel stations
Lost souls callin' long distance salvation
Hey mister deejay gotta hear my last prayer
It's a hey ho rock and roll, deliver me from nowhere
I'm living on the edge of the world...
In the wee wee hours my mind gets hazy
Relay towers, won't you lead me to my baby
'Neath the overpass the trooper hits his party lights switch
Good night, good luck, one, two powershift
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