#83 I Wanna Marry You by Bruce Springsteen

Mawwiage…mawwiage is what bwings us togeva today…

Will not save you
Will not find you
Will not make you
Will not fix you

Should not tame you
Should not break you
Should not complete you
Should not defeat you

Will definitely shake you
Will always wake you
Won’t try to fake you
Won’t stop to take you

It’s something happy
It’s something sad
It’s something so good
And oh so bad

No magic rings
No miracle vows
Only the desire
And Only love knows how


For Complete Lyrics Visit: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/IWannaMarryYou.html

#82 I Wanna Be With You by Bruce Springsteen

New love, intense love. Infatuation and passion giving us permission to burn down the town all around with this powerful heat wave that has taken us over. We risk jobs, relationships, reputation, and everything we have and are because there is something, someone that is worth it all. There is only one person that exists and only one thing you want – to be with them, to see them, to be in a room filled with people and to be aware of only their presence.

When we first fall in love with someone, even before we realize that it may even be love, they swing our world by the tail. They’ve swallowed the key to our passions, our motivations, and our thoughts. Our dreams, awake or asleep, keep them right beside us when they are not yet ours to hold.

It’s inevitable that such a fast moving train will eventually slow down. No one can retain such a high level of emotion over any person or thing. They become ours. We grow familiar. We become comfortable. Love does not fade, but the driving engine burning all day and night does. For those who have found real love, meaningful deep connected down in the fabric of our being love, when this engine slows, will find something beautiful and lasting. For those who rode the train for the sake of the ride, when the fire dwindles, will be left with nothing but the search for another train.

This new love – it’s exciting – it’s scary – it’s everything when it’s there. It’s all consuming. It disregards warnings and advice. It laughs at logic and reason. It takes a sensible person and pulls them by the nose into the tunnel that starts in the light, filled with excitement and promise, and that eventually “gets so dark”, dark enough for “two people to lose each other”. Those who find one another again when the ride comes to an end are those who have entwined the threads of their spirits into one by being vulnerable, by trusting, by respecting and admiring, by unselfishly giving, by being willing to go deep into our own and each other’s “black ladder”s, becoming a part of the same cloth that cannot easily be torn in two. New love becomes secure love, deep love, lasting love – and even though familiar and comfortable and darker – this love still declares at the end of every day “I wanna be with you / I wanna be with you / That's what I wanna do” and that knowing passion is a flame that cannot easily be extinguished.


For Complete Lyrics Visit: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/IWannaBeWithYou.html

#81 Hungry Heart by Bruce Springsteen

For one of my first college papers, I had to write a “causal argument”. I had to explain how one thing caused another. I chose, as I did many times in later papers, to write about Springsteen, specifically how and why he has gained such a loyal fan base. Of course, my teacher was not a Springsteen fan – I even wonder if she ever heard of him. So, while the structure was what she was looking for, I’m pretty sure the content was lost on her. I chose the title “Everybody’s got a hungry heart” because to me that captures what is at the heart of the connection between Bruce and his fans. We are all looking for a connection, and no matter what difficulties leave us disillusioned, most of us never stop looking. When someone understands the ghosts howling and the bells ringing inside our own hearts and captures those emotions with just the right words, we are drawn to them because they give us validation and hope amidst our tumultuous world without and within.

Here is are some excerpts from my paper below: (please excuse the academic format)

Since he was young man born in Freehold, New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen has been carrying a gift that emotionally and spiritually affects the lives of those who let him in. He took everything that he was, the good, the bad, his doubts and fears and poured them into the music and lyrics he wrote. Springsteen’s listeners feel set free in their struggles because they identify with the truths he tells about the human spirit. “… Springsteen has repeatedly gone to where we hurt in order to get at what we have in common” (Wolff).

His emotional background has given him the experience and understanding of the dark parts of the human soul. His songs Darkness, Nebraska, Streets of Philadelphia, You’re Missing, and One Step Up epitomize feelings of loneliness, hopelessness, and grief. Who has not experienced at least one of these in their lives? Hearing someone give words to such deep, personal emotions helps people to gain power over their pain. It frees them from that world by allowing them to place a name or a description to what they are going through.

Springsteen says it best in Darkness: “Everybody’s got a secret sonny/something they just can’t face/they spend their whole lives just trying to keep it/they carry it with them every step that they take/until one day they just cut it loose/cut it loose or let it drag them down/to where no one asks any questions or looks too long in your face/in the darkness on the edge of town.” Lyrics like these help Springsteen fans to not feel so alone in their ache. One Springsteen fan expresses it this way, “Bruce let us in. He let our lives and our pain live in his music. He honored us by telling our stories for us with his voice. He let those of us who were too damaged to live live through his song...” (Brenda).

…His songs…allow his fans to see their lives and struggles expressed and validated in a way that makes them proud to be who they are even when the world may look down on them. These songs became their anthems.

When it comes to love, relationships, and family, Springsteen boils them down to their essence and lays bare the bitter-sweet truth about the moments in our lives touched by these. He has been married twice and has three children, but he never claims to have all the answers. He sings about romantic love, love that’s grown old, love that never was, love that matures, and the difficult and scary faces of love. He holds up love’s promise and asks it to deliver, but accepts its boundaries: “I wanna know if love is wild/I wanna know if love is real.” Then he shows the work love involves in Tunnel of Love: “There's a crazy mirror showing us both in 5-D/I'm laughing at you you're laughing at me/There's a room of shadows that gets so dark brother/It's easy for two people to lose each other in this tunnel of love…the house is haunted and the ride gets rough/And you've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above if you want to ride on/down in through this tunnel of love.” His fans find a comfort and understanding in this realistic expectation of love.

Springsteen’s songs have an understated courage that doesn’t leave his listeners without hope. Hope is what keeps people going, and Springsteen’s fans grab hold of it whenever they can. He tells us “Still at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe.” When life in these “badlands” beats them down to where hopelessness hangs above them by a thread, they look to his music to remind them to find their piece of hope in faith and love. He sings, “I believe in the love that you gave me/I believe in the faith that could save me/I believe in the hope/and I pray that some day/It may raise me above these badlands.” One longtime fan expresses his first live experience with Springsteen, “…it was the moment that I ever heard an artist reach into me time and time again… Aside from God, he has given me the hope and strength to go down some pretty tough paths in life” (Hunt).

Springsteen’s fans allow him in return to still be writing, playing, and touring at the age of fifty-six. He can put on an acoustic show or bring the whole band. His fans keep coming no matter what. He is still providing the something that they need as he continues to write about life’s struggle. Their “hungry hearts” get filled up and validated with every song Springsteen shares from his heart and soul. They find meaning and courage to continue in life when they hear those honest, heartfelt words echoing out from their stereos or from the revered stage at a Springsteen concert. They let him inside the most vulnerable parts of themselves because they know he’s been there too; they know his heart is as hungry as their own.

For Complete Lyrics Visit: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/HungryHeart.html