I’ve been a fan of The Boss for as long as I can remember. When I left Waco last week I decided to make the long needed switch from XM to Sirius. During that drive I was unable to switch off of the Bruce channel for any extended period of time. I was even treated to a replay of one of his 1999 concerts that I was able to attend at Staples Arena in LA, one of only two Springsteen shows I’ve ever seen (the other being a solo acoustic show at Nashville’s Ryman in 1996.)

As I was driving I began to think what would comprise my favorite Springsteen songs of all time. It was too difficult to narrow it down to 10 so I left it at 20. Note: no songs from his new disc, Magic, made the cut. That is due to the fact that they have not withstood the test of time yet, not to the fact that they aren’t incredible songs from one of his finest albums. In addition these are all Springsteen originals so, alas, no Trapped or Jersey Girl.

20. No Surrender–This is a wall of sound gem from Born in the USA. Can you not sense that Bruce knows this is the end of the active membership of Little Steven in the E Street Band?

Money Lyric: We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned is school.

19. Hungry Heart–We will never get to hear this song as Bruce originally intended: a Ramones tune. Instead, we have yet another quintessential Springsteen tune of running.
Money Lyric: Everybody needs a place to rest/Everybody wants to have a home/Don’t make no difference what nobody says/Ain’t nobody like to be alone

18. Highway Patrolman–This song is from the first Springsteen album I ever bought when I was 13 years old. Nebraska is still my favorite Bruce disk and this song about brotherly love and fidelity still resonates with me. If you feel nothing when Joe Roberts pulls over then you have no soul.
Money Lyric: Well I chased him through them county roads/Till a sign said “Canadian border five miles from here”/I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear

17. Brilliant Disguise–Bruce has always zigged when people expected him to zag and this romantic follow-up to the gargantuan selling USA is the epitome of that. Here we see The Boss growing up and looking beyond the road.
Money Lyric: Tonight our bed is cold/I’m lost in the darkness of our love/God have mercy on the man/Who doubts what he’s sure of

“Is it me baby or just a brilliant disguise!”

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16. Fade Away–This is a deep cut off of “The River.” I’ve always loved the notion of refusing to go quietly.
Money Lyric: Now rooms that once were so bright are filled with the coming night

15. American Skin (41 Shots)–This is Bruce at his most unapologetically political. I still get chills every time I hear this protest of a senseless killing.
Money Lyric: Well, is it a gun, is it a knife/Is it a wallet, this is your life/It ain’t no secret (it ain’t no secret)/No secret my friend/You can get killed just for living in your American skin

14. If I Should Fall Behind–I love this song because of the palpable emotion I felt when watching Bruce perform this song with the E Street Band back in 1999. That night the song became more than just another love song but a touching tribute to the band that made him who he is. It was as if Bruce was acknowledging that his greatest musical moments would always come from the partnership of those fellow musicians. This video is from the same reunion tour I saw. Watch the interaction with the band here singing along.
Money Lyric: If I should fall behind/Wait for me

13. My Hometown–No matter what I was doing as a high school student when this video came on MTV with Keith Richards sitting in I was drawn to the screen. Nobody encapsulated the heartache and hopelessness of this era like Bruce.
Money Lyric: Now Main Street’s whitewashed windows and vacant stores/Seems like there ain’t nobody wants to come down here no more/They’re closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks/Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain’t coming back to your hometown

12. Used Cars–Another song from Nebraska this one deals with his childhood watching his father deal with the humiliation of being poor. It’s an indelible word picture. Alas, there seems to be no video of Bruce performing this tune.
Money Lyric: Now, my ma, she fingers her wedding band/And watches the salesman stare at my old man’s hands/He’s tellin’ us all ’bout the break he’d give us if he could, but he just can’t/Well if I could, I swear I know just what I’d do/Now, mister, the day the lottery I win I ain’t ever gonna ride in no used car again

11. Promised Land–This classic is from what I believe to be his greatest E Street release, Darkness on the Edge of Town. This is Rock and Roll the way it is intended to be played.
Money Lyric: Well there’s a dark cloud rising from the desert floor/I packed my bags and I’m heading straight into the storm/Gonna be a twister to blow everything down/That ain’t got the faith to stand its ground/Blow away the dreams that tear you apart/Blow away the dreams that break your heart/Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted

10. Rosalita–If I have to explain why this is in my top 10 then you just aren’t a Springsteen fan.
Money Lyric: Tell him this is last chance to get his daughter in a fine romance/Because a record company Rosie just gave me a big advance
9. Dancing In The Dark–The song that propelled Bruce from Rock and Roll greatness to super-stardom. It still rocks. And this was when Courtney Cox was still making good TV.
Money Lyric: You sit around getting older, there’s a joke here somewhere and it’s on me/I’ll shake this world off my shoulders, come on baby this laugh’s on me
8. My City of Ruins–This song was written prior to 9/11 but took on its greatest significance after that date. Still one of his most powerful lyrics ever. It took on even more added meaning in post Katrina New Orleans.
Money Lyric: Come on rise up! Come on rise up!

My City of Ruins

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7. Darkness On The Edge of Town–Pure greatness.
Money Lyric: Well everybody’s got a secret Sonny/Something that they just can’t face/Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it/They carry it with them every step that they take/Till some day they just cut it loose/Cut it loose or let it drag ‘em down/

6. The River–Do yourself a favor and get a hold of the spoken word intro to this from his 1975-85 live set. It brings the heartbreak of this song into stark relief.
Money Lyric: Then I got Mary pregnant, and man that was all she wrote/And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat/We went down to the courthouse/And the judge put it all to rest/No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle/No flowers no wedding dress

5. Badlands–Yet another cut off of Darkness, this track kicks off with a rollicking keyboard and doesn’t let up until the end. A flawless tune.
Money Lyric: For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside/That it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive/I wanna find one face that ain’t looking through me/I wanna find one place, I wanna spit in the face of these

4. Atlantic City–The first video of his I ever saw from the first album of his that I bought. A moving depiction of the demise of a once great town and how that trickles down to honest hard-working people.
Money Lyric: Everything dies baby that’s a fact/But maybe everything that dies someday comes back/Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty and meet me tonight in Atlantic City

3. Born To Run–It feels wrong putting this song all the way down at number 3. It’s the tune that first introduced me to the greatness of the greatest rocker of my lifetime. But, as great as it is, it’s not my favorite Springsteen song. But it’s oh so close. And oh so perfect. I never knew who Wendy was but I sure wanted to marry her.

Money Lyric: The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive/Everybody’s out on the run tonight but there’s no place left to hide/Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness/I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul/Someday girl I don’t know when we’re gonna get to that place/Where we really want to go and we’ll walk in the sun/But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run

2. Land of Hope and Dreams–I first heard this song in 1999 when Bruce closed the Staples show with it. To me this is his most hopeful, most redemptive and most faith filled song. It’s a Christ message wrapped in that vintage E Street sound.
Money Lyric:
This Train…
Carries saints and sinners
This Train…
Carries losers and winners
This Train…
Carries whores and gamblers
This Train…
Carries lost souls
This Train…
Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train…
Faith will be rewarded
This Train…
Hear the steel wheels singin’
This Train…
Bells of freedom ringin’

1. Thunder Road–Specifically the 1975 version that was on the live set. This song, to me, stands as the quintessential Springsteen song: the specific girl, the cars, the hopelessness, the feelings of inadequacy and longing, and ultimately the hope of something better out there waiting.
Money Lyric: The whole thing.

Thoughts