Here we have the sister track to The Long Goodbye. Thematically? No, but certainly musically

Here is a example of me never getting to the lyrics. Musically, “The Long Goodbye” goes nowhere.

Haven’t we all been in this situation? I know I have. There’s a breakup and somewhere down the road you see your ex with somebody new. It can hurt, perhaps more than you were expecting.

If you read enough writing about Springsteen, sooner or later you’ll discover that every song he’s ever done has been thought of as his “worst” by somebody.

It feels weird for me to be commenting on lyrics (since I’m apparently one of the rare NotALyricsGuy™’s who also happens to be a Springsteen fan)

The wish to dive headlong into the future, to face whatever comes and to rise above it all: that theme presents itself in so many Springsteen tunes. Hell, the entire Born To Run album was built on that idea.

For a few seconds here, you might be fooled into thinking this was the E Street Band. An aggressive snap-roll of the drums, a single guitar chord, and a joyous piano figure sure did sound about right.

Here Bruce presents a variation on “Be careful of what you wish for…,” turned sideways as “…with every wish comes a curse.” We want that job, no matter what it might do to us. We want that person, even if they’re not “the one.”

Here’s a great example of how Bruce’s live performance can transform a song. “Gloria’s Eyes,” the studio version is nothing special. A guy-loses-girl story set to a rolling guitar figure/blues changes thing.

“Cross My Heart” immediately struck me as one of those little naughty slice of life vignette’s to be placed alongside songs like “Pink Cadillac” and (more recently) “You’ve Got It.” The innuendo is about as subtle as most old blue tunes (read: not)