i got this old car and she's pretty tough to beat
Thunder Road is one of my all-time favorite songs, if not THE all-time favorite (it certainly gets my vote as Greatest Song of All Time), and I've been listening to it a lot lately, which means it must be time for another post about how awesome it is.
Mostly, I've been listening to it in conjunction with Wings for Wheels, which is sort of the proto-"Thunder Road" - the music and some of the lyrics are the same, but it's a very different song.
In one of the posts I made way back when, I posted a bunch of different versions, and a lot of them capture the wistful/bittersweet quality to the song, but not many capture the hope that accompanies the original, album version.
"Wings for Wheels" is a version with almost no bittersweetness; instead, it's full of sheer brash bravado. There's still a little wistfulness - my favorite lines are I'm no prince and I can't lay the stars at your feet / But I got this old car and she's pretty tough to beat / There's plenty of room in my front seat, baby, if you wanna take it - but it doesn't have the same world-weariness as the final version, that knowledge that things have gone badly before and will probably go badly again, but there's still a chance, out on the road, to catch the promised land the narrator and Mary (Angelina in "Wings for Wheels") have missed out on so far.
It does strike something inside of me, though, makes me all achy in the chestal area in almost-but-not-quite the same way as "Thunder Road" does - that rough, young hopefulness, that cockiness, the fact that his car is almost more important to him than his girl - But this 4/4/2's gonna overheat / Make up your mind girl, I gotta get her back out on the street - [and that reminds me of something I read or heard once (via Nick Hornby?) about Elvis Costello, whom I love, being asked his opinion of Bruce Springsteen, and his response was "I don't drive." Or something to that effect. Which I find hilarious in a really bitchy way], combined with really fantastic live energy (and some unfortunate lyrical choices [the dirty wings them highway angels wear? seriously?] that were later jettisoned, thankfully) make it a more rollicking song, but still with that touch of wistfulness.
"Wings for Wheels" is less about redemption than "Thunder Road" is - it doesn't have the same weight to it (and I am always kind of shocked when I think of how young Springsteen was when he wrote it), the same knowledge of how things go wrong and this is possibly the last chance for things to go right, that permeates "Thunder Road" - but it makes me happy in its own way.
Hee! And the radio is playing "Born to Run" now. As if they know!
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Another thing that makes me happy - thecakeblog. Man, when those pictures pop up on my flist, I just sort of stare in awe (and hunger). Mmm...cake...
***
Mostly, I've been listening to it in conjunction with Wings for Wheels, which is sort of the proto-"Thunder Road" - the music and some of the lyrics are the same, but it's a very different song.
In one of the posts I made way back when, I posted a bunch of different versions, and a lot of them capture the wistful/bittersweet quality to the song, but not many capture the hope that accompanies the original, album version.
"Wings for Wheels" is a version with almost no bittersweetness; instead, it's full of sheer brash bravado. There's still a little wistfulness - my favorite lines are I'm no prince and I can't lay the stars at your feet / But I got this old car and she's pretty tough to beat / There's plenty of room in my front seat, baby, if you wanna take it - but it doesn't have the same world-weariness as the final version, that knowledge that things have gone badly before and will probably go badly again, but there's still a chance, out on the road, to catch the promised land the narrator and Mary (Angelina in "Wings for Wheels") have missed out on so far.
It does strike something inside of me, though, makes me all achy in the chestal area in almost-but-not-quite the same way as "Thunder Road" does - that rough, young hopefulness, that cockiness, the fact that his car is almost more important to him than his girl - But this 4/4/2's gonna overheat / Make up your mind girl, I gotta get her back out on the street - [and that reminds me of something I read or heard once (via Nick Hornby?) about Elvis Costello, whom I love, being asked his opinion of Bruce Springsteen, and his response was "I don't drive." Or something to that effect. Which I find hilarious in a really bitchy way], combined with really fantastic live energy (and some unfortunate lyrical choices [the dirty wings them highway angels wear? seriously?] that were later jettisoned, thankfully) make it a more rollicking song, but still with that touch of wistfulness.
"Wings for Wheels" is less about redemption than "Thunder Road" is - it doesn't have the same weight to it (and I am always kind of shocked when I think of how young Springsteen was when he wrote it), the same knowledge of how things go wrong and this is possibly the last chance for things to go right, that permeates "Thunder Road" - but it makes me happy in its own way.
Hee! And the radio is playing "Born to Run" now. As if they know!
***
Another thing that makes me happy - thecakeblog. Man, when those pictures pop up on my flist, I just sort of stare in awe (and hunger). Mmm...cake...
***