“blinded by the light” off and on the pop charts (was bruce springsteen ever blinded by the light? – part 3)

Estimated reading time is 5 minutes.

UNLESS YOU’RE OLD ENOUGH to have been there THEN (the early months of 1973) but weren’t paying attention or you were not a Springsteen fan (and who was back then outside of a small circle of friends near Asbury Park?) or not a fan now (and who isn’t?), then you know that Springsteen’s “Blinded By The Light” single did not make the charts here there and everywhere.

In fact, Bruce did not find his way onto any national survey until late 1975, when Born To Run reached #17 on Cash Box and #23 on Billboard.

In the wake of Bruce’s successes of 1975-76 as an album and concert artist, he had his biggest impact on the charts as a songwriter. His biggest pop success came from an unlikely source with unlikely material: Manfred Mann, ever ready to pick up on a good thing, recorded a version Blinded By The Light.

It was a far more complicated arrangement and production and a reworking of the song’s verse and choruses structure. Whereas Springsteen’s lyrics were laid out rather simplistically:

verse/verse/chorus
verse/chorus
verse/verse/verse/chorus/coda

At least, this is the best that I can make it out; you may break it up into more verses but the basic structure would remain the same. The Mann’s version was a reworking of the original. For the sake of comparison, in the first part of this essay I assigned numbers to the verses and choruses in the original lyrics.

The breakdown of the verses was based on how they were used in the Mann arrangement. I did this simply to illustrate the work that went into Mann’s version, that it was not a note-for-note/word-for-word take on the original. Also, those few words in bold print were either dropped from the Manfred’s version or altered . . .

chorus/verse
chorus/verse
chorus/chorus/verse
chorus/verse/verse/verse/coda


©

Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.
Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.
Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.

(V1)

Madman drummers, bummers, Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat.
In
the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat.
With a boulder on my shoulder, feeling kinda older, I tripped the merry-go-round.
With this very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing, the calliope crashed to the ground.

The calliope crashed to the ground.

©

Cause she was blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.
Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.
Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.
Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night. 

(V5)

Some silicone sister with her manager, mister,told me I got what it takes.
She said, “I’ll turn you on, sonny, to something strong if you play that song with the funky break.”
And Go-cart Mozart was checking out the weather chart to see if it was safe
to go outside.
And little Early Pearly came in by
his curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride.
Asked me if I needed a ride. 

(C1)

Cause she was blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.
Blinded by the light.
She got down but she never got tired, she’s gonna make it through the night.
She’s gonna make it through the night.

(C3)

Mama always told me not to look into the eye of the sun, but mama, that’s where the fun is.
But mama, that’s where the fun is.
Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun—but mama, that’s where the fun is.

(V4)

Some brimstone, baritone, anti-cyclone, rolling stone preacher from the east.
He says, “Dethrone the dictaphone, hit it in its funny-bone, that’s where they expect it least.”
And some new-mown chaperone was standing in the corner
all alone watching the young girls dance.
And some fresh-sown moonstone was messing with his frozen zone to remind him
of the feeling of romance.

©

The calliope crashed to the ground.
Cause she was blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.
Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.

(V1)

Madman drummers, bummers, Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat.
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat.
With a boulder on my shoulder, feeling kinda older, I tripped the merry-go-round.
With this very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing, the calliope crashed to the ground.

(V3)

And now young Scott with a slingshot finally found a tender spot and throws his lover in the sand.
And some bloodshot forget-me-not whispers, “Daddy’s within earshot, save the buckshot, turn up the band.”

(V5)

Some silicone sister with a manager, mister, told me I go what it takes.
She said “I’ll turn you on, sonny, to something strong . . .”
She got down but she never got tired, she’s gonna make it through the night.

It was also two minutes longer than the original, which was more than five minutes long. An abridged version was released as a single in the summer of 1976, the response to this version was quite different from the original.


Absolute repetitive gibberish

I have been a Mann fan since the ’60s, including most of the various permutations of his band. But this one, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (whatever that means), left me cold. While it would have been groovy if Mann and band had duplicated the loopy joy of Quinn The Eskimo (Mighty Quinn), such was not the case.

Their reading of the Springsteen song was technically perfect—in its full Seventies overblown production/engineering regalia—and emotionally vapid. I found the recording and its ubiquitous presence endlessly annoying. As one commenter observed: “The most annoying song ever written. Absolute repetitive gibberish.” (Josh)

Needless to say, it found its way to #1 for one week on both Billboard and Cash Box in early 1977. Hell’s Belles, it won’t even go away from today’s oldies stations! (Now, fatuously called “classic rock.”)

In one of the Seventies’ funnier recorded moments, due to either the lead singer’s (mis)pronunciation or a glitch in the recording, an “sss” sound was turned into a “shh” sound and countless listeners heard the following lyrics: “wrapped up like a douche another rubber in the night.” Surely this must rank with the classic Sixties’ mishearing of “‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy . . .”

Springsteen-as-tunesmith enjoyed more success: in 1978, Patti Smith reached #10 on Cash Box and #17 on Billboard with her melodramatic reading of Because The Night, of which she was co-writer. This was followed in 1979 by the Pointer Sisters reaching #2 on both surveys with sensual take on Fire.

The Boss would go on to reach Billboard’s Top 10 eleven times in the ’80s, although he would never top that chart’s Hot 100. On Cash Box, Dancing In The Dark would be #1 on the Top 100 for two weeks, his sole chart-topper on a national survey.

 


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