Recurring Lyrics / Motifs / Themes in Bruce Springsteen's Work

Submitted by Wezzo on Sun, 06/29/2008 - 06:43
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  • still very much in progress

  • LYRICS

  • price you pay
  • The Price You Pay : title
  • Badlands : "Let the broken hearts stand as the price you've gotta pay"
  • Across the Borderline : "You pay the price to come so far"
  • Prove It All Night : "Girl, you want it, you take it, you pay the price"
  • Promised Land
  • The Promised Land : title
  • Thunder Road : "We're ridin' out tonight to case the Promised Land"
  • Across the Borderline : "When you reach that broken promised land"
  • Johnny Bye-Bye : "A one-way ticket to the promised land"
  • The Price You Pay : "Do you remember the story of the promised land?"
  • From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come) : "At sixteen she quit high school to make a fortune in the Promised Land"
  • hearts of stone
  • Hearts Of Stone : title
  • Better Days : "Every fool's got a reason to feelin' sorry for himself and turning his heart to stone"
  • Where the Bands Are : "You know that heart of stone, girl, it just ain't your style"
  • out in the street
  • Out in the Street: title
  • Incident on 57th Street: "We may find it out on the street tonight, baby"
  • Jungleland: "Rock 'n' roll bands that face off against each other out in the street"
  • Don't Look Back : "Come on and meet me tonight, darlin', out in the street"
  • Fade Away : "I don't wanna be just another useless memory holding you tight or just some other ghost out on the street"

  • MOTIFS

  • river
  • The River : title
  • Meeting Across The River : title
  • Trouble River : title
  • Matamoros Banks
  • Mississippi
  • Reason to Believe
  • highway, road
  • colours
  • edge of town
  • factory
  • father
  • Union Street, streets
  • party
  • bars
  • games, gambling
  • murder
  • rain
  • finish work
  • unions
  • American dream
  • Born to Run : "In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream"
  • late summer

  • THEMES

  • birth, heritage, fate
  • wistfulness
  • Downbound Train : "I had a job, I had a girl, I had somethin' going, mister, in this world"
  • Dead Man Walkin' : "Once I had a job, I had a girl"
  • nostalgia
  • evil prevails
  • compromise
  • aspiration, rich-poor divide
  • war