Two different points of view in the same song

I like the idea of POV switching.

The lines he writes at the end of "Jersey Girl" adds a reality to it, that is somewhat missing in the original.

Some people have said that Wait's version is tongue in cheek to some degree, although I find it to be a nice idea for a song.

"For You" is an epic song from start to finish. It's lyrical geography that will be traveled for years, at the heart of it is a desire to reapair something that cannot be repaired. It's a perspective that is easily understood, but painful to live with. In later years, this idea will be dealt with again, "Point Blank" comes to mind. The last verse of "Racing in the Street" has it as well.

Buddhabone,

Do you think that/know that Bruce wrote those lyrics at the end of Jersey Girl? If so, then I feel a bit of disappointment. Actually, what I felt was relief when I thought that Waits wrote them.

Yeah, "For You" is epic. The POV is very confused in it, though. Do you think there is a chance that there are really two girls?

Princess cards she sends me with her regards
barroom eyes shine vacancy, to see her you gotta look hard
Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted
To her Cheshire smile. I'll stand on file, she's all I ever wanted.

But you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts
honey, get your carpetbaggers off my back
you wouldn't even give me time to cover my tracks,
You said, "Here's your mirror and your ball and jacks." But they're not what I came for, and I'm sure you see that too
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
and your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free.

Crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak,
reveal yourself all now to me girl while you've got the strength to speak
Cause they're waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks
But I could give it all to you now if only you could ask.
And don't call for your surgeon even he says it's too late
It's not your lungs this time, it's your heart that holds your fate
Don't give me money, honey, I don't want it back
you and your pony face and your union jack
well take your local joker and teach him how to act
I swear I was never that way even when I really cracked
Didn't you think I knew that you were born with the power of a locomotive
able to leap tall buildings in a single bound ?
And your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
you could laugh and cry in a single sound.

And your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the god ?

You were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
Remember how I poured salt on your tongue and hung just out of reach
And the band they played the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
They ragged, jagged melody she still clings to me like a leech.
But that medal you wore on your chest always got in the way
like a little girl with a trophy so soft to buy her way
We were both hitchhikers but you had your ear tuned to the roar
of some metal-tempered engine on an alien, distant shore
So you, left to find a better reason than the one we were living for
and it's not that nursery mouth I came back for,
It's not the way you're stretched out on the floor
cause I've broken all your windows and I've rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores ?
And you should know that's true...
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
and your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free.


First four lines are talking about the girl, rest of the song is addressing the girl. Same girl. He refers to their past relationship many times e.g. "you let", "you said", "remember when I kept you waiting", "you were not quite half so proud", "so you left", but the one-sided conversation is still taking place in the present.

It's a very veiled way to begin the song, especially as it gets so personal so quickly afterwards. He's said when introducing it that it was an example of his early "hidden" love songs, and the overload of imagery and distant opening seem to back that up. Imagine the immediacy the song would have if you changed the first four lines to:

Princess cards you send me with your regards
Your barroom eyes shine vacancy, to see you, you gotta look hard
Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted
To your Cheshire smile I'll stand on file, you're all I ever wanted.

PS--If you want to see a real POV shift in the middle of a song, check out "Used Cars"--one verse he's in the car, the next he's outside watching.

The point of view switches on "Paradise". First it's seen through the eyes of a terrorist suiciadl bomber and then it's told through the eyes of someone who lost someone to a terrorist's (the same one? I don't know) attack.

I think it's not so uncommon for Bruce to change the point of view in a song.

Oh, I don't think it's two girls in For YOu. I don't even think it's two poits of view. I just think sometimes Bruce calls her "her" and sometimes he calls her "she" depending on if he's talking to us or talking to her.

I'm thinking it is two women.

Princess is a old obsession that he is admitting to,
but the rest of the song is about his current obsession.

In the second verse he tell her that she needs to stop being mad about his old obsession.

The rest is about her and their relationship.

I thought the song was about a girl friend who either ended up in mental institution or tried to kill herself.

Or is that The Rolling Stones song?

But if that's true why would he tell his new obsession that his old obsession is all he ever wanted? That'd be dumb.

Now if it was called "For Them" or "For You Two" maybe. HA HA!

I'll stand on file, she's all I ever wanted.

Wanted is past tense.
I wanted her in the past.
I want you now.
I came for you.

I heard it was about a suicide. So if it's two girls is the new girl comitting suicide because of the old girl? I don't mind debate. You don't get Bruce talk like this around my house, trust me.

It's two girls. And they're lesbians.

It's a song about a girl who chooses drugs, death over their love.

We were both hitchhikers but you had your ear tuned to the roar
of some metal-tempered engine on an alien, distant shore
So you, left to find a better reason than the one we were living for

Lesbians. I'm telling you.

How did you get drugs out of that verse? Or lesbians? Nooooooooooooo!

I would respond, but this is supposed to be a serious discussion thread. So there'll be no jocularity around these parts.

But seriously, Backstreets is about lesbians too.

Backstreets is about gays, not lesbians.

But you are right, in OAN, no thread hijacking or other hijinks allowed.

Last verse was written by Bruce. From the Tom Waits Library:

The best known cover is of course that made by Bruce Springsteen. He first performed the song at Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey, July 2, 1981. There is a bootleg (audience) tape available from that show. He performed it again a week later, on July 9, 1981, and this time he recorded it himself and released it as B-side of the 7" single 'Cover Me' in 1981. It's also available in the box-set 'Bruce Springsteen Live 1975-1985' released in 1986. ...Bruce added a verse of his own: "I see you on the street and you look so tired I know that job you've got leaves you so uninspired When I come by to take you out to eat I find you dressed upon the bed and baby, fast asleep Go in the bathroom, put that make-up on We're gonna take that little brat of yours, and drop her off at your mom's Oh, I know a place where the dancin's free Come on girl, won't you go with me?" There is also a version with Tom and Bruce doing the song together. It was recorded at a Springsteen concert at LA Sports Arena, Los Angeles, August 24, 1981'. (Submitted by Ulf Berggren. Listserv Raindogs discussionlist. March, 2000) *

Backstreets is sung from him being a girl POV just like My Loverman

Now I'm confused. I thoguht My Lover Man was sung from a gay point of view and I thought that was pretty cool since Bruce has such a macho image, to sing as a gay and everything. I mean, he sang as a gay on Streets Of Philadelphia but I don't think anyone could notice from the song. But if you listen to My Lover Man, oh yeah, there's no doubt in your mind that it's from a gay point of view.
But Backstreets, I don't think was about gays or lesbians or even Bruce singing from a girl's position. If I'd heard My Lover Man back when I was a teenager or a twentysomething year old Bruce Tramp, I probably wouldn't have liked it. BUT, and this is a big but, since living in California and meeting some gays and growing up a little myself in my views I think gays are just like us except they are well gay so if Bruce wants to sing about them too, it just magnifies his being the voice of America.

You guys are kidding about Backstreets or what?

From a Bootleg outtake....


Backstreets - "basement at St. John" version
One soft infested summer me and Terry became friends
Trying in vain to breathe the fire we was born in
Catching rides to the outskirts, tying faith between our teeth
Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house getting wasted in the heat
And hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets
Well we swore forever friends
On the backstreets until the end

In the basement at St. Johns well I found her where she fell
Just another busted sister of Heartbreak hotel
Slow dancing in the dark on the beach at Stockton's Wing
In the deep heart of the night to set us loose from everything
We'd go running on the backstreets, running on the backstreets
We loved so hard and filled with defeat
Running for our lives on the backstreets

Endless juke joints and Valentino drag
Watching the heroes in the funhouse ripping off the fags
The teenage ice exploded in crazy sets of fights
Running off down the boardwalk into the night
Blame it on the lies that killed us
On the truth that ran us down, Terry you can blame it all on me
Blame it on that town
But I hated him and his fancy ways
I hated you when you went away
Whoa no, whoa no

Laying here in the dark you're like an angel on my chest
Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness
Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see
Trying to learn how to walk like heroes we thought we had to be
And after all this time to find we're just like all the rest
Stranded in the park and forced to confess
To hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets
Call it blood, cold young skins
Spitting out them backstreet scenes
Hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets
....
This is why we go hiding on them backstreets tonight
Hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets
.?

Notes: Outtake version with lyrics changes.