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“This record is almost 50 years old,” said Bruce Springsteen when discussing his classic song ‘Thunder Road’. “50 years ago, I was a sociopath. I was insane about every single detail that had anything to do with music: my album, my album cover, my lyrics. I went over everything with a fine tooth comb so everything would be perfect and completely accurate.”

Bruce Springsteen was discussing the common debate that fans have surrounding the song’s lyrics. People seem incapable of agreeing on whether Springsteen says that Mary’s dress “sways” or “waves” in the opening line. The Boss admits he can’t remember himself and so pulls out the lyric sheet for one of the original copies of the album.

“The lyrics to ‘Thunder Road’ are in this album. The correct lyrics,” he said as he pulled the sleeve out of the packaging. “I’ve been singing ‘Sways’ for almost 50 years,” he announced before reading the lyrics aloud. “The screen door slams, Mary’s dress… waves.” After a moment, Springsteen processes what he’s just read before discarding the lyrics and saying, “This is wrong.”

It may be that Springsteen’s memory of his mindset when he wrote the song is hazy because of how much work he put into it. As he admits himself, he was a “sociopath” when writing music in the early stages of his career, and he went over every detail again and again to ensure it sounded right. He was also always keen on making sure that his songs reflected what he believed to be reality.

His band, The E Street Band, are named after a real street where the original piano player, David Sancious, lived down. Not to mention, when Springsteen wrote about different people in his songs, like “The Boy Prophets” and “Little Angel” in one of his earliest songs, ‘The E Street Shuffle’, he based those characters off people he had met in the real world.

His obsession with lyrics and reality meant that when you were listening to one of Bruce Springsteen’s songs, you were actually hearing a reworked version of a revised version of a final draft. This excessive pondering over lyrics and music means that it’s understandable he would occasionally mix up lyrics, as occurred in ‘Thunder Road’.

We know that the lyrics we hear for ‘Thunder Road’ aren’t the original ones that Springsteen wrote, as it had a separate name and words before it was ever titled such a classic. The earliest version of the song that there is a record of is a track called ‘Wings for Wheels’, which has the same chords and melody as ‘Thunder Road’ but uses different lyrics and has a slightly altered structure.

Footage of this early iteration of the Springsteen classic is below, and it’s well worth watching. You will be able to pick out many changes, including the words to the song and the way that the whole thing fits together. However, even though the live shots only represent a brief snapshot of the song, it’s clear that Springsteen was always on to a classic.

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The SPL Rocks!







Pulled up to my house today
Came and took my little girl away!
Giants Stadium 8/28/03



Oats

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