Screen door slams
Mary's dress sways
These are the opening lines to Bruce Springsteen's 1975 album Born to Run. The song is "Thunder Road." I don't think there's a single album-opener in the history of music that opens up with so much story and imagery, using so few words. If not the standing champion of the greatest opening lines of all time, surely this was an unprecedented feat in rock lyricism. What's crazy is, the song keeps going from here. And the quality never ends. Perfectly setting you up for an album packed full of this narrative songwriting, by the time you get to its epic closer "Jungleland," you're just used to the magic by then. So a screen door slams. And some girl named Mary is in a dress that's already in motion, by itself. What's really going on here? What could possibly happen next? There's over 4 minutes of song left. Will Bruce keep you hooked the entire time? You have to keep listening to find the answer.
By the way, the first word of the song is actually "the." But for romantic purposes, I'm not gonna bring that up.
I'll spare y'all some time, and I'm not going to dissect the rest of the song's lyrics by writing 2 sentences for every word Bruce says. But I am going to share the rest of the song's lyrics. And then I'm gonna write a bunch of stuff. Here's a Spotify link to the song below. You can play it as you read along. But this blog post's gonna be a freaking novel.
The song kicks off with piano and harmonica. Then we get this:
Screen door slams. Mary's dress sways. Like a vision, she dances across the porch as the radio plays. Roy Orbison singing for the lonely. Hey, that's me. And I want you, only. Don't turn me home again; I just can't face myself alone again. Don't run back inside, darling. You know just what I'm here for. 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. And that's alright with me.
Holy shït.
He doesn't actually say that last part, but I just wanted to pause and reflect on the amount of dynamic detail, personality and character he wraps together in this opening paragraph. There's a 3-second break before he sings again. So let's take this is in.
Dude shows up in front his crush's house. She's dancing in a dress as Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely" plays in the background. He just doesn't want to be lonely (again) tonight. No, we don't know what he's there for. Fear of aging somewhere. He suggests fighting this fear with total trust in the magic of the night. We don't know how cute this girl is, but there's an obvious sense the romance between Bruce and Mary.
Let me just say... On Bruce's previous 2 albums, I compare his lyrical and musical styles to other artists. Namely Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. But ever since 1975... We compare other artists' songwriting techniques to Bruce Springsteen. Get it?
Over 1 minute into the song. Finally get some drums and guitar in the mix. Then we get this:
You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain. Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain. Waste your summer praying in vain for a savior to rise from these streets. Well now, I'm no hero. That's understood. All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood; with a chance to make it good, somehow. Hey, what else can we do now? Except--
--Hoo boy, those drums kick it up a notch here! And enter some glockenspiel!--
--Roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair. Well, the night's busting open. These two lanes can take us anywhere. We got one last chance to make it real; to trade in these wings on some wheels. Climb in back. Heaven's waiting down on the tracks.
Sorry, I have to pause again. We are going for a fߎcking DRIVE, baby! And my god, the select vocabulary from this last section... "Study your pain." "Make crosses of your lovers." "The night's busting open." "Trade in these wings on some wheels." I'll leave it open for you guys to interpret these uses of figurative language, but we still got a ways to go.
To top it off, the freaking contrast lines here. She's praying for a "savior." Bruce is not Jesus, but offers "redemption" anyways, in the form of a vehicle's running engine. And don't overlook his immediately following up "2 lanes" with "1 last chance." A chance to make it real (whatever that means).
Anyways, going forward, I will spoil things for you by mentioning this song has no chorus. He just keeps singing about going for a drive with a cute chick. Now we get this:
Oh, come take my hand. We're riding out tonight to case the promise land. Oh, Thunder Road. Lying out there like a killer in the sun. Hey, I know it's late. We can make it if we run. Oh, Thunder Road. Sit tight, take hold: Thunder Road!
Well, I got this guitar, and I learned how to make it talk. And my car's out back, if you're ready to take that long walk, from your front porch to my front seat. The door's open, but the ride ain't free. And I know you're lonely for words I ain't spoken--
--Bruce's vocal approach at the end of this song is some of the most sincere, passionate wailing you'll ever hear. And the music gets all the more fiery.--
--But tonight we'll be free! All the promises'll be broken! There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away. They haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets. They scream your name at night in the street! Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet! And in the lonely cool before dawn, you hear their engines roaring on! But when you get to the porch, they're gone on the wind. So Mary, climb in. It's a town full of losers. I'm pulling out of here to win!
Much of those final lyrics close out with a realllly cool syncopated harmony between the guitar and piano. But after Bruce's singing ends with an elongated "WIIIIIN," we get a brief drum break, and the the song's musical momentum finally crashes. We close out with 1 full minute of outro music, set at a slower pace. Clarence Clemons plays an equal-parts catchy and emotional saxophone hook that fades out into the sunset. There's a grandeur to the piano and glockenspiel that always makes me feel like I myself am riding out into the sunset.
In fact, throughout my adulthood, I've kicked off many road trips playing this song in my car as I start driving away from home.
So these closing lyrics are a lot to take in. Perhaps I've overplayed this song too much to recognize how much more they adds to the song's active story or its background. But gøddamn... All those poetic writing qualities I mentioned earlier? He does not pump the brakes.
Reading some of these specific words in 2022, these might look like some run-of-the-mill, hokey lyrical choices. But dig through your music history books. Before 1975, who in god's name was using this specific type of vernacular? These words may read as generic because they just look like "Bruce Springsteen" lyrics. This is where that songwriting style was born.
As for dissecting the entire closing sentences of this song here... Holy crap. I'm gonna keep going.
My favorite one-liners from this bunch: "Lying out there like a killer in the sun." "The door's open, but the ride ain't free." "Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet."
Some mind-blowing songwriting tricks he sneaks in here: I don't know what "case the promise land" means. That "front porch/front seat" contrast line. "Lonely for words" sounds romantic as hell. Use of the word "promises'll." A sentence that includes the words "haunt," "dusty beach," "skeleton frames," "burned," and "Chevrolets." And of course, the final word of the song is Bruce screaming "WIIIIIN," which if that isn't bombastic enough, this is an action done by a boy in "a town full of losers."
Listen y'all. You're not getting through any of my spiritual music reviews without me bringing up a tie-in to my personal emotional experiences, with a twist of my clinical struggles with mental illness.
I coulda sworn Pitchfork wrote a review for this album back in 2005 where they wrote something like "Bruce Springsteen has emotional issues." I just checked. They never said that. But I'm riding with that sentiment.
Born to Run is an album built on both theatrical rock orchestration and a freaking explosive delivery of stories that sound naturally poetic. What is Bruce singing about? Is this a story with like 20 important characters and a complex plotline full of conceptual themes your mind has never explored before? Not really. The main character is Bruce. He mentions a lot of people. Heck, a few songs after chasing down Mary, he starts crushing on Wendy. And everything that happens here, happens at night. Somewhere in New Jersey. Conceptually, sure, he touches on deep topics like sex, drugs, and violence. Yet as a whole, be it before or after 1975, I've never heard any artist romanticize the adolescent nightlife like this. And the one topic that he makes sound like the most life-or-death challenge humanly imaginable... Is love. I'm talking about romance. I'm talking about Mary (or Wendy) accepting a ride in your car (or "suicide machine"), and seeing what happens from there. If Bruce really thinks about life this way, he probably has emotional issues. But at the same time... Is he so wrong?
I myself feel like every romantic interest I've ever had has been my own Mount Everest of stress. Does this album help? No. Yes. Actually, I can't tell. I often imagine myself in Bruce's hyper-romantic "Thunder Road" scenario. "Surprise! I'm at your house! I love you! I have a car! I play guitar! Your graduation gown is presumably a college graduation gown because I'm freaking 31 years old and that's my dating pool! I probably started off the night mumbling, but now I want to scream everything I say! To you!" Do you get what I'm saying?
But yeah, any romantic tension I've ever felt for any girls out there has either ended with me self-sabotaging my chances, or ultimately just getting rejected (sooner than later). With a whimper, and definitely not with a bang. But I'd like to see the potential positive results of love on Born to Run not as romanticism, but as reality. And "Thunder Road" depicts that perfectly. The emotion, the energy, the story, and of course the lyrical masterclass from America's generational songwriting champion.
What other album begins with the words "screen door?" Not to mention turns this song into an epic piece of rock music? 'Thunder Road" is the greatest album-opener of all time. Sets a high bar for an album's-worth of songs to follow. Which, sure, "Born to Run" is probably the better song. But in the modern scope of songwriting in pop music history? Everything begins with "Thunder Road."
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