deepestbluesky

i am off other social media, and also i'm in the part of the cycle of remembering DW exists where i check it regularly, and so i am here to bring you installment whatever (two in two days is high even for me) of the ongoing 'sky has too many feelings about bruce springsteen' saga, which will likely never end, and will certainly resurrect itself in august and maybe also september. be forewarned.

5.
Sometimes it's like someone took a knife, baby, edgy and dull and cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my skull
—I'm on Fire
this is the current quote that sparked this list, but it's #5 because i only have one (very loud) thing to say about it: to everyone who covers this song and changes it to "through the middle of my soul", you are a COWARD and you MISSED THE POINT. this is a song about being so horny you want to die, not about souls and feelings and love. get the fuck out of here. sing about being so turned on it's like someone stabbing through your literal bones or don't even bother to cover it. (and @ springsteenlyrics dot com, you are Wrong. try harder.) (there's almost certainly versions where bruce sings it as 'soul', and again I DON'T CARE)

4.
The highway is alive tonight
—Seaside Bar Song & The Ghost of Tom Joad
seaside bar song is definitely an Early Springsteen Song TM that is very 50s rock questionable forms of address for love interests (there's a little girl and a daddy) and i understand that. however. 1, i love it, and 2, i love this line??? i love that this line was apparently written in an outtake for his SECOND ALBUM and then he kept it around until the '90s and dropped it in a COMPLETELY different context in ghost of tom joad, a song that i adore and single-handedly changed my feelings towards grapes of wrath? there's a couple springsteen callback lyrics ("radio's jammed with talk show/gospel stations" in open all night and radio nowhere, i think?) but this one is soooo chef kiss. writing it as a 'we're young and hot and we could go anywhere' lyric and then eventually using it as a vision of all the people stuck on the road trying to find a better life under capitalism despite knowing it's a completely hollow and unachievable dream? incredible character development.

3.
I check my look in the mirror/I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face
—Dancing in the Dark
look i just did a whole podfic essentially about how much i love this line and think it is Queer Vibes. i recognize that many people feel this feeling, not just queer people, but i don't care! it is a queer line To Me! and also it's just. yeah. i like that bruce has always had lines about being dissatisfied with himself. knowing he's always struggled with depression helps color this too. if i try to keep going, i'll just start yelling other lines from this song, so i am moving on.

2.
It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
—Badlands
there are a lot of other lyrics i have extremely specific enjoyment of, for the way the words sound or a borderline offensive-clever pun or for echoing between two songs, but like. idk. this one's a big deal because it's a big deal and sometimes you just need to scream this. the build up to it in the song, too, especially in live versions... where you get the instrumental and it builds and circles for sooo long on the 'oh's and then this verse comes in and just feels so cathartic. i've never heard this lyric and not felt like it felt a little bit cathartic, i think, and i appreciate that a lot.

1.
But it's good to see your smiling face and to hear your voice again/Now we could sleep in the twilight by the riverbed/With a wide open country in our hearts/And these romantic dreams in our heads
—No Surrender (from Live 1975-85)
sorry to those of you who have already heard this rant (minna and remi for SURE, hopefully no one else has activated my trap card about this before), but. BUT. the live no surrender is infinitely superior to the album version, and this lyric change is (half of) why. in the original, it's "There's a war outside still raging/You say it ain't ours anymore to win/I wanna sleep beneath peaceful skies in my lover's bed/With a wide open country in my eyes/And these romantic dreams in my head" which like, isn't bad? but it's SO DIFFERENT! one of the things that i've always liked about no surrender is that it's such a 'you and your friends' song, so the introduction of "my lover's bed" takes away from that for me, and i also think the loss of the war metaphor and the addition of the extremely nostalgic reunion vibes with "good to see your smiling face and to hear your voice again" hits extremely hard for me every time.

pseudo tumblr tags section: honorable mentions to 'all this steel in my stories' from Wrecking Ball (the origin of my private twitter handle and an old tumblr url, YES it is a slightly altered live lyric), 'let there be sunlight, let there be rain/let the brokenhearted love again' from Sherry Darling (this is such a joke party song and then he just drops THIS SHIT???), and like the fucking entirety of backstreets