Songbook #5: Blinded by the Light
She got down but she never got tight
She's gonna make it through the night
Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Written by Bruce Springsteen
Blinded by the Light
June 1996:
I'm driving down a country road. It's late on Friday night and the sky is clear and filled with stars. The windows are rolled down and I'm driving my family's 1985 Honda Accord far faster than I should be, because I'm eighteen and I subconsciously believe that I'm invincible*. There's a beautiful girl in the passenger seat; she's seventeen and says she loves me. I'm eighteen, so I believe her and say I love her back, and I mean it just as sincerely as she does. I won't know how inaccurate we both are for some months**, but right now, everything is pretty much perfect. Her parents work nights so we're headed over to her house. I've got the radio dialed up to the classic rock station and this song comes on. Blinded by the Light...
Present Day:
Intellectually, I realize that this song is terrible. It's only marginally better than Bruce's original version of the song, which is nigh unlistenable. And remember, that opinion is coming from someone who has shelled out more than $300 for Springsteen tickets during his life, who once stated (incorrectly) that "every American male over the age of 15 should own a Springsteen album," and who after receiving his first 'real' paycheck post-college drove straight to the store and bought the Live/1975-85 box set. I haven't the faintest idea how the Manfred Mann version hit number one. I assume everybody was on really good drugs in the Seventies, or that their manager had blackmail material on the guys who compile the charts. Even more hilariously, it's the only version of a Springsteen song to ever hit #1 - the highest his own efforts ever got was #2. And no, I have no idea what the lyrics mean. I'm pretty sure Bruce doesn't either. I refer you to my previous comments about drugs in the Seventies.
I don't really think of myself as having a favorite song or band, because if I did how could anyone ever surpass it? Still, if you were to point a gun at my head and tell me to name my favorite song of all time, this is what I'd pick 9 times out of 10. I like this song so much that I have never acquired it. No album, no iTunes single, no dubbed version off the radio, nothing burned to CD, nothing stolen from the internet. The only time I hear it is when it happens to come up on the car radio, and since I'm typically tuned to my radio station and this song isn't all that popular anyway, that means that I usually hear it two or three times a year at most. On the plus side, most of those times are when I'm driving down the interstate late at night, and every time I glance over at the passenger seat on the off chance that She'll turn up. She didn't for a long time, and then She did for six years, but She's gone now, and honestly at this point I don't even know who She is going to be, but maybe one day...
*I believe this even though one of my good friends has been dead for nearly three years due to an accident with a gun he thought wasn't loaded and my best friend's brother died in an accident on these very roads. Next year a younger teammate from the football team will die in a collision with a car driven by another student. So maybe I'm not invincible so much as idiotic. Fortunately for me, I'm also lucky as hell+.
**When I actually realize this (shortly after she dumps me to get engaged to a guy she met the week before), the residual damage to my psyche pretty much destroys any chance I have at dealing coherently with women for years. If you knew me in college and wondered why I was bitter and angry my freshman year, this probably explains it. Well, that and the terrible roommate I had that year. I'm better now, and I've got a standing invitation to visit the girl in question++ if I'm ever in her town (which isn't geographically likely, but I appreciate it) She's still beautiful and is happily married with four kids. I haven't seen the roommate since 1998. More on him later.
+Several of my classmates survive smaller accidents, including one guy who manages to roll a minivan end over end and a teammate who is riding in the bed of a pickup when it flips and walks away without a scratch.
++Yes, I know that if you're reading this you very likely know her name. It's not relevant; comments with it will be deleted.
Tracklist
#1 - Welcome to the Jungle
#2 - Runnin' Blue
#3 - Cryin'
#4 - Mr. Jones
#5 - Blinded by the Light
She's gonna make it through the night
Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Written by Bruce Springsteen
Blinded by the Light
June 1996:
I'm driving down a country road. It's late on Friday night and the sky is clear and filled with stars. The windows are rolled down and I'm driving my family's 1985 Honda Accord far faster than I should be, because I'm eighteen and I subconsciously believe that I'm invincible*. There's a beautiful girl in the passenger seat; she's seventeen and says she loves me. I'm eighteen, so I believe her and say I love her back, and I mean it just as sincerely as she does. I won't know how inaccurate we both are for some months**, but right now, everything is pretty much perfect. Her parents work nights so we're headed over to her house. I've got the radio dialed up to the classic rock station and this song comes on. Blinded by the Light...
Present Day:
Intellectually, I realize that this song is terrible. It's only marginally better than Bruce's original version of the song, which is nigh unlistenable. And remember, that opinion is coming from someone who has shelled out more than $300 for Springsteen tickets during his life, who once stated (incorrectly) that "every American male over the age of 15 should own a Springsteen album," and who after receiving his first 'real' paycheck post-college drove straight to the store and bought the Live/1975-85 box set. I haven't the faintest idea how the Manfred Mann version hit number one. I assume everybody was on really good drugs in the Seventies, or that their manager had blackmail material on the guys who compile the charts. Even more hilariously, it's the only version of a Springsteen song to ever hit #1 - the highest his own efforts ever got was #2. And no, I have no idea what the lyrics mean. I'm pretty sure Bruce doesn't either. I refer you to my previous comments about drugs in the Seventies.
I don't really think of myself as having a favorite song or band, because if I did how could anyone ever surpass it? Still, if you were to point a gun at my head and tell me to name my favorite song of all time, this is what I'd pick 9 times out of 10. I like this song so much that I have never acquired it. No album, no iTunes single, no dubbed version off the radio, nothing burned to CD, nothing stolen from the internet. The only time I hear it is when it happens to come up on the car radio, and since I'm typically tuned to my radio station and this song isn't all that popular anyway, that means that I usually hear it two or three times a year at most. On the plus side, most of those times are when I'm driving down the interstate late at night, and every time I glance over at the passenger seat on the off chance that She'll turn up. She didn't for a long time, and then She did for six years, but She's gone now, and honestly at this point I don't even know who She is going to be, but maybe one day...
*I believe this even though one of my good friends has been dead for nearly three years due to an accident with a gun he thought wasn't loaded and my best friend's brother died in an accident on these very roads. Next year a younger teammate from the football team will die in a collision with a car driven by another student. So maybe I'm not invincible so much as idiotic. Fortunately for me, I'm also lucky as hell+.
**When I actually realize this (shortly after she dumps me to get engaged to a guy she met the week before), the residual damage to my psyche pretty much destroys any chance I have at dealing coherently with women for years. If you knew me in college and wondered why I was bitter and angry my freshman year, this probably explains it. Well, that and the terrible roommate I had that year. I'm better now, and I've got a standing invitation to visit the girl in question++ if I'm ever in her town (which isn't geographically likely, but I appreciate it) She's still beautiful and is happily married with four kids. I haven't seen the roommate since 1998. More on him later.
+Several of my classmates survive smaller accidents, including one guy who manages to roll a minivan end over end and a teammate who is riding in the bed of a pickup when it flips and walks away without a scratch.
++Yes, I know that if you're reading this you very likely know her name. It's not relevant; comments with it will be deleted.
Tracklist
#1 - Welcome to the Jungle
#2 - Runnin' Blue
#3 - Cryin'
#4 - Mr. Jones
#5 - Blinded by the Light