POLL: Vote for the most striking Springsteen lyric

If there’s one misconception about Bruce Springsteen, it’s that he’s strictly a meat-and-potatoes lyricist, favoring straightforward ditties about working men, social injustice and cars, not necessarily in that order.

In truth, though, anyone with more than a passing knowledge of his work knows that his songs can contain striking, even haunting imagery. It’s one of the reasons many of us go back to his songs time and time again when things get tough. You know who you are.

With that in mind, the Blogness staff took to making a list of the Springsteen lyrics and images that have meant the most of us over the years. We hesitate to say they’re “the best” — because what does that even mean? — but to us, they’re among the most striking and resonant. In some cases it’s the imagery, in some cases the sentiment, and in others it’s just that they offered an uncanny reflection of life as we were living it. Or they’re just wicked cool.

Of course, narrowing down this list almost resulted in us coming to blows, and we stopped at a very reasonable 70 before things got really ugly. This is where you come in (since you have nothing better to do): In the poll below, vote for up to 10 of your favorites from this list, or add one of your own in the space at the bottom. (The only rule: No lines that include song titles.) At the end of the week, we’ll tally up the results for an official list of the Top 10 Most Striking Springsteen Lyrics. Go!