SONG TITLE:  BLINDED BY THE LIGHT
PERFORMER:  BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
SONGWRITER:   BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
YEAR OF RELEASE:   1973
COMMENTS: Damn it, now this is rock and roll.  The drums and sax keep it
rhythmically thrusting properly forward.  Then Bruce comes rolling across the
top bouncing that catchy little street jive melody.  Then the guitar tops it
off with some actual legitimately funky guitar bombing you with a merciless
overload on the pleasure circuits.

Springsteen is among other things one of Bob Dylan's best students. 
Springsteen's idealized "street poetry" actually comes more from the college
coffehouses that Dylan came out of than anything remotely working class.  For
someone who speaks the language of the people, actually you would listen to
stuff like Bob Seger, Lynyrd Skynyrd or James Brown. 

Which is all well and good, as Springsteen has his own other thing going,
shucking and jiving in ways that don't quite sound like anything else before.
 For one thing, Springsteen has a physical, nay a sexual presence that Dylan
or the Byrds never approached.  That funky guitar and wailing sax certainly
didn't come from any Dylan record.  There is a certain air of palpable
earnest  ambitious purpose - that he has something to prove and is absolutely
commited to success.  His pure charismatic intensity can overpower you.

PS Their was a big hit cover version of this song by Manfred Mann.  It was a
very different arrangement, overwhelmed almost by the way overly stagey off
Broadway dramatic style that would eventually be codified by Meatloaf.  Call
this recording prophetic.  Whatever else, it showed how strong this melody is
by how much you can twist it without losing its appeal.

"In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat." 
Now that's the kind of thing that might instill in you a sense of purpose.

Bruce Springsteen wallpaper photo

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN PHOTOS  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24

   
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Bruce Springsteen

Music Sustains the Soul

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