This is NOT an analysis of a song, merely personal observations about a song that I love. Enjoy. "Jungleland" by Bruce Springsteen The final track on The Boss's "Born To Run" album from 1975 (among my top 2 rock albums ever), this is an epic tale of gang culture in Bruce Springsteen's New Jersey streets. I love a story, and this one is full of imagery and fabulous characters - The Magic Rat, The local cops Cherry-Tops. Driving guitars from the E Street Band and a truly glorious sax from the Late, Great and Mighty Clarence Clemons at about 4 minutes make this very special. I love you Big Man. "And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine Over the Jersey state line" "The midnight gang's assembled And picked a rendezvous for the night They'll meet 'neath that giant Exxon sign That brings this fair city light Man, there's an opera out on the Turnpike There's a ballet being fought out in the alley Until the local cops, Cherry-Tops, rips this holy night" "Beneath the city, two hearts beat Soul engines running through a night so tender In a bedroom locked in whispers Of soft refusal and then surrender" "Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz Between what's flesh and what's fantasy And the poets down here don't write nothing at all They just stand back and let it all be And in the quick of a knife, they reach for their moment And try to make an honest stand But they wind up wounded, not even dead Tonight in Jungleland" "Jungleland"
Songwriter: Bruce Springsteen © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC The Rangers had a homecoming In Harlem late last night And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine Over the Jersey state line Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain The Rat pulls into town, rolls up his pants Together they take a stab at romance And disappear down Flamingo Lane Well, the Maximum Lawmen run down Flamingo Chasing the Rat and the barefoot girl And the kids 'round there live just like shadows Always quiet, holding hands From the churches to the jails Tonight all is silence in the world As we take our stand Down in Jungleland The midnight gang's assembled And picked a rendezvous for the night They'll meet 'neath that giant Exxon sign That brings this fair city light Man, there's an opera out on the Turnpike There's a ballet being fought out in the alley Until the local cops, Cherry-Tops, rips this holy night The street's alive as secret debts are paid Contacts made, they flash unseen Kids flash guitars just like switchblades Hustling for the record machine The hungry and the hunted Explode into rock 'n' roll bands That face off against each other out in the street Down in Jungleland In the parking lot the visionaries dress in the latest rage Inside the backstreet girls are dancing To the records that the DJ plays Lonely-hearted lovers struggle in dark corners Desperate as the night moves on Just one look and a whisper, and they're gone Beneath the city, two hearts beat Soul engines running through a night so tender In a bedroom locked in whispers Of soft refusal and then surrender In the tunnels uptown, the Rat's own dream guns him down As shots echo down them hallways in the night No one watches when the ambulance pulls away Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz Between what's flesh and what's fantasy And the poets down here don't write nothing at all They just stand back and let it all be And in the quick of a knife, they reach for their moment And try to make an honest stand But they wind up wounded, not even dead Tonight in Jungleland
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