Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Greetings from Asbury Park NJ

Since Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, I was feeling early Springsteen. Before he became The Voice of Working-class America Springsteen was a hipster street poet. Then Dave Sancious left the E Street Band after The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle and everything went downhill.

Although his greatest song is Kitty's Back, check out the lyrics from Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?
Hey bus driver, keep the change
Bless your children, give them names
Don't trust men who walk with canes
Drink this and you'll grow wings on your feet
Broadway Mary, Joan Fontaine
Advertiser on a downtown train
Christmas crier bustin' cane
He's in love again

Where dock worker's dreams mix with panther's schemes
To someday own the rodeo
Tainted women in VistaVision
Perform for out-of-state kids at the late show

Wizard imps and sweat sock pimps
Interstellar mongrel nymphs
Rex said that lady left him limp
Love's like that (sure it is)
Queen of diamonds, ace of spades
Newly discovered lovers of the Everglades
They take out a full-page ad in the trades
To announce their arrival
And Mary Lou, she found out how to cope
She rides to heaven on a gyroscope
The Daily News asks her for the dope
She said, "Man, the dope's that there's still hope"

Senorita, Spanish rose
Wipes her eyes and blows her nose
Uptown in Harlem she throws a rose
To some lucky young matador