Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDLXXI--Bruce Springsteen: Blinded by the Light

 Only six days late for this one.  Getting better!

In the fall of 1975, I was a lonely teenager who had begun to discover the joys of politics, and I'd go to my high school's library every day at lunch and pore over Time and Newsweek to keep up with the latest political stories.  In October of that year, this musician that I'd never heard of made the cover of both in the same week.  I rushed right out and bought his new album, Born to Run, and after a couple of listens...decided I didn't really like it all that much.  Fortunately for me, I am a persevering sort and gave it a few more listens and it eventually became my favorite album of all-time.  To make a too long story shorter, after realizing Born to Run was quite the album, I began to explore his earlier works, and was lucky enough to hit upon the gem that was his debut, whose first song is this week's featured tune....

Amazingly enough, I've only written about Bruce Springsteen, probably my favorite artist (with The Who a close second), twice for Friday Night Jukebox.  I wrote about the aforementioned album (it was my first yearly album post) in Vol. LXXV, and "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" which wouldn't even make my top one hundred Springsteen songs (early on I used to write posts about songs that coincided with holidays until I realized I was writing about songs that weren't exactly my favorites just to meet a theme) in Vol. LXXIX.  Guessing that in the future there's going to be a shitload of Springsteen posts--there's a lot of good songs to be written about....

"Blinded by the Light" was the first song on Springsteen's first album, the gloriously entitled, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.   It was released as the first single from the LP, but the song did not chart.  The album peaked at #60 on the Billboard 200.

Fun Fact:  While Springsteen's version wasn't a hit single, Manfred Mann's Earth Band released a cover version that hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976.  It is the only Springsteen penned tune to hit the top of the singles charts.

You'd be hard pressed to name a better debut song from a debut album than "Blinded by the Light."  Springsteen pulls out all the stops--magnificent lyrics (check out the plethora of rhymes), an inspired vocal (you can hear inklings of what Springsteen would become), and a band that captures all the raucousness that the song embodies.  I've always loved the guitar intro (what a spiral would sound like if it played music), and Clarence Clemons wailing sax as the band repeats "I was blinded" over and over at the song's close.  A paean to the vagaries and bravado of youth--just a delightful gem.

Lyric Sheet:  "Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun/Whoa, but Mama, that's where the fun is, oh yeah..."

Enjoy:

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee