Confessions of a Fanboy

If I were to distill this site and everything I write for it down to one single thought, it would be The Power of Music. I once again find myself helpless, being overpowered by another great song. Raise your hand if you’re surprised it’s by Bruce Springsteen.

Now, I am pretty knowledgeable when it comes to Springsteen but I will be the first to admit there are some songs that have slipped through the cracks for me. Where some fans – like Saleski and Iguana Glen – have spent a lifetime listening to the records and digesting them in bite size pieces, my love for the man’s music has come in a more compressed fashion. That has resulted in some songs and albums being less familiar to me than others.

A couple years ago, some friends bought 18 Tracks for me for Christmas. I’d wanted it for awhile for the three songs that weren’t included on Tracks, but felt really burned by the idea that I’d paid good money for the box set and now had to shell out for these three songs. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so I let a friend do it for me. They didn’t mind and neither did I. I listened to those songs in the car on our way home and they’ve always existed out on the periphery for me, never really taking root in my mind.

Fast forward to tonight. I was on my way home from dinner with TheWifeToWhomI’mMarried and I was looking for a song to listen to on the way home. I think Iguana Glen mentioned “The Promise” during our B-Sides Concept Album conversation and I remembered as I looked at my iPod that I always confuse “The Wish,” which was included on Tracks, and “The Promise,” which was not and was later released on 18 Tracks. “What the hell?” I thought, as I queued the song.

According to my internet research, “The Promise” was originally written for Darkness On The Edge Of Town. It was supposedly left off because Springsteen was concerned people would interpret it as being a song about the lawsuit that sidetracked his career after Born to Run, a claim he denies. It was then considered for Tracks because he wasn’t happy about any of the recorded versions he had in the vault. He re-recorded the song and included it on 18 Tracks.

I’ve never heard any of the other versions of this song, but I can’t imagine any of them being any better than this. It’s a simple, stripped down affair; just Bruce and his piano. I’ve listened to it a dozen times in a row now and I don’t know if I’m ever going to recover. It’s hard to think someone as celebrated as Bruce Springsteen can still be underrated, but I sometimes think he’s overlooked as a vocalist. I defy you to ignore his vocal on “The Promise.”

The metaphors and symbols in the song are familiar ones; cars and highways. There are even references to “Thunder Road.” The lines that really got my attention tonight was:

All my life I fought this fight
The fight that no man can ever win
Every day it just gets harder to live
This dream I’m believing in Thunder Road, oh baby you were so right Thunder Road, there’s somethin’ dyin’ on the highway tonight

I don’t know if I’m living the dream now, but that line rings so true for me. I feel like I’m being cut from the inside out by this song, yet I’m powerless to turn away from it and I wouldn’t even if I could.

Filed under: Tags: Bruce Springsteen, Listening Room