Secret Garden (1995) – Bruce Springsteen

I think Secret Garden is one of Bruce’s finest love ballads. As time has passed, I associate it more with Cameron Crowe’s sport drama Jerry Maguire (currently sitting at No 38 on my Favourite Movies List). This popular mainstream movie gave the song immediate traction and launched it to a wider audience than otherwise; extending Bruce’s appeal and legacy. For that reason, I have sent the viral fan video below (of the movie spliced with the song) which far exceeds the views of Bruce’s official video. I hope Bruce purists are not left too much in a pickle.
Apart from the fabulous usage of the song in the movie, what really floors me upon each listen is the song’s ‘bridge’. As I wrote in another song by Bruce called Countin’ on a Miracle and I could say the same of Secret Garden:

Countin’ on a Miracle contains about the best ‘bridge’ in any song I have heard. Normally I loathe these fillers as they seem to labour the song, but in Countin’ the bridge is the part of the song I like the most. 

There are so many similarities in the themes, significance and role of the ‘woman’ as presented in Secret Garden and Bob Dylan’s masterpiece Shelter From the Storm. In both songs the woman is a symbol of safety and comfort. In Secret Garden: The woman’s garden represents a space of emotional safety, where the protagonist can find solace. In Shelter from the Storm: The woman is a literal shelter, providing the narrator with protection from the chaos outside. It’s no coincidence then that director Cameron Crowe chose the latter song to close out the movie when we had earlier been serenaded today’s featured track – Secret Garden. The two songs are a couplet as it were, as presented in the Jerry Maguire movie.

[Verse 1]
She’ll let you in her house
If you come knockin’ late at night
She’ll let you in her mouth
If the words you say are right
If you pay the price
She’ll let you deep inside
But there’s a secret garden she hides

[Verse 2]
She’ll let you in her car
To go driving ’round
She’ll let you into the parts of herself
That’ll bring you down
She’ll let you in her heart
If you got a hammer and a vise
But into her secret garden, don’t think twice

[Bridge]
You’ve gone a million miles
How far’d you get
To that place where you can’t remember
And you can’t forget?

[Verse 3]
She’ll lead you down the path
There’ll be tenderness in the air
She’ll let you come just far enough
So you know she’s really there
Then she’ll look at you and smile
And her eyes’ll say
She’s got a secret garden
Where everything you want
Where everything you need
Will always stay
A million miles away

The following are extracts from the Wikipedia reference below:

Secret Garden was originally released as a single from his Greatest Hits album and peaked at a meagre No 63 in the US, but No 9 in Australia, 7 in Canada and 17 in the UK.

The song has been performed only a handful of times live. It was performed three times in 1995 in New York, and one time on the Reunion Tour in 2000. The song returned to the setlist once in 2013 when Springsteen performed it in the United Kingdom. After a three-year hiatus, Springsteen performed it twice in 2016 in New Jersey and Washington, D.C., and once in 2017 in Brisbane, Australia.

Steve Baltin from Cash Box praised the song, noting that it is a ballad that follows in the footsteps of the softer material from his Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.” He added that featuring the reunited E Street Band, “it is one of the prettier melodics Springsteen has ever come up with”.

Reference:
1. Secret Garden (Bruce Springsteen song) – Wikipedia

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