i was gonna just be lazy and print the lyrics to bruce springsteens' "4th of July Asbury Park (Sandy) to celebrate this glorious day but when i cut and paste the lyrics it came out in prose form. i read it and it seemed like a kerouac piece. i've always thought sprinsteen was a little like ray davies. both seem to depict their homeland more as the way they wish it could be. romantic and moral and violent and poetic. where each act possesses a kind of 'holiness', to paraphrase j.k. "latin lovers along the shore" "the aurora is rising behind us" and, to me, the songs key line, 'running down the beach at night with my boss's daughter well he aint my boss no more' just sound so free and grand. it's sounds like a place i'd like to visit.
so anyway, i'm babbling. read this. really read it. it's good writing. long live america.
Sandy the fireworks are hailin' over Little Eden tonightForcin' a light into all those stoned-out faces left stranded on this Fourth of JulyDown in town the circuit's full with switchblade lovers so fast so shiny so sharpAnd the wizards play down on Pinball Way on the boardwalk way past darkAnd the boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers along the shoreChasin' all them silly New York girlsSandy the aurora is risin' behind usThe pier lights our carnival life foreverLove me tonight for I may never see you againHey Sandy girlNow the greasers they tramp the streets or get busted for trying to sleep on the beach all nightThem ruin their spiked high heels ah Sandy their skins are so whiteAnd me I just got tired of hangin' in them dusty arcades bangin' them pleasure machinesChasin' the factory girls underneath the boardwalk where they promise to unsnap their jeansAnd you know that tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach dragI got on it last night and my shirt got caughtAnd that Joey kept me spinnin' I didn't think I'd ever get offOh Sandy the aurora is risin' behind usThe pier lights our carnival life on the waterRunnin' down the beach at night with my boss's daughterWell he ain't my boss no more SandySandy, the angels have lost our desire for usI spoke to 'em just last night and they said they won't set themselves on fire for us anymoreEvery summer when the weather gets hot they ride that road down from heaven on their Harleys they come and they goAnd you can see 'em dressed like stars in all the cheap little seashore bars parked making love with their babies out on the KokomoWell the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they doThis boardwalk life for me is throughYou know you ought to quit this scene tooSandy the aurora's rising behind us, the pier lights our carnival life foreverOh love me tonight and I promise I'll love you forever
2 comments:
I think I see Springsteen in a whole new way now.
I remember once sitting in my bedroom watching a helium balloon drift around the room as Jungle Land played on the turntable. It was like the soundtrack to the balloon and I wasn't even stoned.
Another time I was listening to Springsteen -- it was a summer night in probably like 1980 or so. It always felt cooler in our basement, and slightly musty. I sat on the couch reading the liner notes until some friends came over.
Another time, in the winter, listening to Prove it All Night over and over. This must have been like right when the album came out. I was in 5th grade.
I saw him in the mid 80s, during Born in the USA, at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. Some older kids behind me kept going on about how the Pink Floyd show they saw had been so much better. Fuck them.
Memories!
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