Blog poll reveals 'Most Striking Springsteen Lyrics'
A classic line from his song “The River” has been named Bruce Springsteen’s “most striking lyric” by visitors to the Springsteen blog Blogness on the Edge of Town.
After tallying up almost 5,000 responses, blogger Peter Chianca revealed readers’ choices for the “Top 10 Most Striking Springsteen Lyrics,” with the top finisher being “Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?”
The line comes from the title track to Springsteen’s 1980 album The River, and Chianca had cited it as “Springsteen’s most disconsolate lyric” in his recent eBook, “Glory Days: Springsteen’s Greatest Albums” (Endeavour Press).
Other findings from the poll included:
- Of the top ten finishers, four were from Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978) and three were from Born to Run (1975).
- Both “Jungleland” from Born to Run and “Racing in the Street” from Darkness had two finishers each in the top 10.
- The third most popular response was actually “other answer,” with readers suggesting more than 100 additional lyrics over and above the 70 included in the original poll.
- Springsteen’s biggest hit album, 1984's Born in the USA, yielded no lyrics in the top 10, but the No. 6 finisher – “It’s a sad man my friend who’s livin’ in his own skin and can’t stand the company” – came from one of Springsteen’s less well-known solo efforts, Lucky Town from 1992.
“For those of us who’ve followed his work through the years, Bruce Springsteen’s words, phrases and images continue to be inextricably interwoven in our hearts and minds,” said Chianca of the poll’s results. “They’re available at a moment’s notice to help us give context and clarity to almost any situation we find ourselves in.
"If there’s a higher compliment to a songwriter, I don’t know what it is," he added.
The top 10 finishers appear below. A full list of the results appears at Blogness on the Edge of Town (blogs.wickedlocal.com/springsteen).
- “Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?,” from “The River” off The River
- “Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night,” from “Thunder Road” off Born to Run
- “Ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive,” from “Badlands” off Darkness on the Edge of Town
- “Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge, drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain,” from “Jungleland” off Born to Run
- “Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted,” from “Promised Land” off Darkness on the Edge of Town
- “It’s a sad man my friend who’s livin’ in his own skin and can’t stand the company,” from “Better Days” off Lucky Town
- “She stares off alone into the night, with the eyes of one who hates for just being born,” from “Racing in the Street” off Darkness on the Edge of Town
- “Tonight my baby and me we’re gonna ride to the sea and wash these sins off our hands,” from “Racing in the Street” off Darkness on the Edge of Town
- “Poets down here don’t write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be,” from “Jungleland” off Born to Run
- “You’ve got to learn to live with what you can’t rise above,” from “Tunnel of Love” off Tunnel of Love
"Blogness on the Edge of Town" is a Gatehouse Media blog founded in 2007 and based near Boston. It features posts by a staff of Springsteen bloggers from around the country.