Something In The Night (1978) – Bruce Springsteen

I’ve always liked the understated album cover of Darkness on the Edge of Town. It seems like Bruce wasn’t interested in the usual pomp and spectacle—no elaborate “Bringing It All Back Home” setup here. Instead, it’s as if he just threw on a black jacket after rolling out of bed, got the shot, and moved on. That straightforward approach leads us neatly into today’s featured track, ‘Something in the Night.’ This is Bruce stripped down to the essentials, with raw ache in his voice, laying it all out there. What’s not to love?

Something in the Night is the third song from his fourth studio album Darkness on the Edge of Town presented here after his previous entry Racing in the Street. Both songs are about cars and yearning for something better, something that’s just out of reach. I love the simplicity of his lines about being born with nothing and being better off that way; otherwise, they’ll just take it all away. The exuberance of the idealism and escapism of youth was captured in his magnum opus – Born to Run, but there is something darker here on display. It may be that credulity portrayed earlier ends up coming to a screaming halt (And left us running burned and blind) as the responsibility of adulthood and reality of life comes a calling.

Also consider that musically, Darkness on the Edge of Town strips the Wall of Sound production of its predecessor, Born to Run for a rawer sound emphasizing the band as a whole and where Bruce was going with more sombre and personal undertakings such as The River and Nebraska. Here in ‘Something..’ the lyrics are stripped back and like the rest of the album focus on ill-fortuned characters including his father in Factory.  

Well, I’m riding down Kingsley
Figuring I’ll get a drink
Well, I turn the radio up loud
So I don’t have to think

And I take her to the floor
Looking for a moment when the world seems right
And I tear into the guts, mmm
Of something in the night

Well, you’re born with nothing
And better off that way
Soon as you’ve got something, they send
Someone to try and take it away

Well, you can ride this road till dawn
Without another human being in sight
Yeah, just kids wasted on, mmm
Something in the night

[Bridge]
Well, nothing is forgotten or forgiven
When it’s your last time around
And I got stuff running ’round my head
That I just can’t live down

Well, we found the things we loved
They were crushed and dying in the dirt
We tried to pick up the pieces
And get away without getting hurt

But they caught us at the state line
Burned our cars in one last fight
And left us running burned and blind, mmm
Chasing something in the night

References:
1. Darkness on the Edge of Town – Wikipedia

About observationblogger

“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand