So for a while now the Professor and me have been saying things like “’Gypsy Biker’ is your favorite song” to each other, because we’ve been dreading what it might sound like (“Probable line fragment: ‘chasing that caravan through the night‘”). PrettyFaker KD defended the song, saying it was “actually the best song on the album and, to these ears, the best thing he’s done in more than twenty years.”
I don’t agree—but it ain’t half bad. You can stream the whole album via Q 104.3 and decide for yourself. One thing’s for sure—there’s some pretty dang good stuff on there. “Girls In Their Summer Clothes” made my spine tingle—there’s a relaxed tone to it, a bittersweet fond reminisce—I can’t quite ascertain who it reminds me of yet. But I like it!
And for you gypsy lovers out there: Bruce now has nine total songs mentioning that paragon of restlessness. The man knows a lot of gypsies, and is often going to visit them. New Jersey must be weird as all get out.
BRILLIANT DISGUISE
“the gypsy swore our future was right
Well maybe baby the gypsy lied”SOUL DRIVER
“I’ll be your gypsy joker your shotgun rider”OVER THE RISE
“I walk along the levee to see the gypsy man”MY LOVER MAN
“Was it a gypsy’s curse or a hex sign”SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT
“We’ll pick up Hazy Davy and Killer Joe and I’ll take you all out to where the gypsy angels go
So we closed our eyes and said goodbye to gypsy angel row, felt so right”LUCKY MAN
“I went to see the gypsy the other night”BETTER DAYS
“Now my ass was draggin’ when from a passin’ gypsy wagon”LOCAL HERO
“I woke to a gypsy girl sayin’ ‘Drink this’”
All joking aside, “Long Walk Home” is awesome.
Interesting that this gypsy obsession seems to have taken off post-Tunnel of Love—which could lead us to draw some interesting correlations between the presence of gypsy and the quality of the Springsteen albums on which they appear.
Ooh! I hear an echo of the old time music behind The Seeger Sessions in “Long Walk Home” when he says “they’re all rank strangers to me.” More of that!
But: Bruce should not sing directly into the camera.
And: I’m glad they pressed the “state fair imagery” button instead of “old car imagery” button for this video.
However: I might be getting excited again.
Except: maybe this “let’s idealize the small towns of our youth” thing kind of ruins it for me. I bet this will be the video in heavy rotation on CMT —it’s exactly right for that network, so wholly devoted to selling nostalgia for the present.
Dude. I TOTALLY am!! Like, giddy excited!
I have a very infrequently occurring and poorly studied Springsteen-specific form of bipolar disorder, by the way.
Yeah yeah! I am beginning to get really excited. October 2, y’all!!
Note: the “monkey on a leash” remark in “Livin’ in the Future” prompted me to search the FREEHOLD ORACLE on other “monkey” references. Four is too many.
PART MAN, PART MONKEY
Part man, part monkey, definitely
Man in a monkey suit swears he’ll do no evil
Part man, part monkey, looks like to me
Part man, part monkey, baby that’s me
REAL MAN
Hell any monkey can
BISHOP DANCED
She glides like a monkey-mule kicking on the back slide
WILD BILLY’S CIRCUS STORY
And circus boy dances like a monkey on barbed wire
Okay, I can’t stop. OMG BRUCE IS A FORD FAN (with six references):
ICEMAN
Won’t be able to stop us from hitting town in this dirty old Ford
RAMROD
She’s a roadrunner engine in a ‘32 Ford
ONE STEP UP
Went out and hopped in my old Ford
SHUT OUT THE LIGHT
Bobby pulled his Ford out of the garage and they polished up the chrome
DARLINGTON COUNTY
Seen Wayne handcuffed to the bumper of a state trooper’s Ford
ALL I’M THINKIN’ ABOUT
I’m in a flat bed Ford carrying a heavy load
Chevrolet or Chevy (counting Camaro): five
SEASIDE BAR SONG
Well Billy bought a Chevy ‘40 coupe deluxe
RACING IN THE STREET
I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396
LOST IN THE FLOOD
races Sundays in Jersey in a Chevy stock super eight
THUNDER ROAD
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets
RACING IN THE STREET
In a Camaro with this dude from L.A.
I blew that Camaro off my back and drove that little girl away
Dodge sucks, with one, but huge bonus for being in a legendary song:
JUNGLELAND
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge
But OMG OMG HE’S RICH award: Six Cadillacs:
CADILLAC RANCH
I’m gonna take them down to the Cadillac Ranch
PINK CADILLAC
I love you for your pink Cadillac
JOHNNY BYE-BYE
Up over the ridge came a white Cadillac
ADAM RAISED A CAIN
and the keys to your daddy’s Cadillac
SEASIDE BAR SONG
Hey girl, you wanna ride in Daddy’s Cadillac?
NEW YORK CITY SERENADE
Sittin’ low in the back seat of his Cadillac
You should probably lose points for being on “Tracks” only.
You only lose points for being on disc 4 of Tracks. Unless you’re “Brothers under the Bridge,” in which case you’re aces forever.
Not to be confused with “Brothers under the Bridges (‘83)”!
The large number of Human Touch/Lucky Town period should be enough to give anyone pause about falling back on gypsy references.
PS
Amazon shipped my copy yesteday!
Some choice lyrics, now that the new record has really sunk in:
“My faith’s been torn asunder
Tell me is that rolling thunder
Or just the sinking sound
of something righteous going under?”
“Livin’ in the Future” I think might just be #2 on the album (behind “Girls,” of course). But this one has some really peculiar like Vonnegutian time shifting. Well, maybe not that crazy. But the odd games with verb tense Bruce plays here…well, it’s all Bushy/Orwelly. And, like, say, “Hungry Heart” or “Glory Days,” there’s a melancholy underneath the shout-alonginess. Like “Girls,” really. They “pass me by.”
Dammit, now I have to go listen to it again (for the third time today).