Bruce Springsteen Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ

Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ Bruce Springsteen

Released: January 5, 1973 Peak: 60 US, 41 UK, -- CN, 71 AU, 13 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, -- UK, 3.5 world (includes US + UK), 5.14 EAS Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Click on a song titled for more details. Blinded by the Light Growin’ Up Mary, Queen of Arkansas Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street? Lost in the Flood The Angel For You Spirit in the Night It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City Total Running Time: 37:08

Rating: 3.993 out of 5.00 (average of 33 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album “Bruce Springsteen's debut album found him squarely in the tradition of Bob Dylan: folk-based tunes arranged for an electric band featuring piano and organ (plus, in Springsteen's case, 1950s-style rock & roll tenor saxophone breaks), topped by acoustic guitar and a husky voice singing lyrics full of elaborate, even exaggerated imagery. But where Dylan had taken a world-weary, cynical tone, Springsteen was exuberant. His street scenes could be haunted and tragic, as they were in Lost in the Flood, but they were still imbued with romanticism and a youthful energy. Asbury Park painted a portrait of teenagers cocksure of themselves yet bowled over by their discovery of the world. It was saved from pretentiousness (if not preciousness) by its sense of humor and by the careful eye for detail that kept even the most high-flown language rooted. Like the lyrics, the arrangements were busy, but the melodies were well developed and the rhythms, pushed by drummer Vincent Lopez, were breakneck.” AM The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Blinded by the Light Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen (see lyrics here) Recorded: 9/11/1972 at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York Released: 2/23/1973 as a single, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973), The Essential (2003), Greatest Hits (2009) B-side: “The Angel” Peak: 15 CL, 6 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 4.6 video, 24.29 streaming

Blinded by the Light Manfred Mann’s Earth Band

Released: August 6, 1976 First Charted: August 28, 1976 Peak: 11 US, 11 CB, 13 GR, 11 HR, 14 RR, 1 CL, 6 UK, 11 CN, 11 AU, 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 38.6 video, 149.42 streaming

Awards (Springsteen): (Click on award to learn more). Awards (Manfred Mann): (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: When Bruce Springsteen first emerged as an artist, many hailed him as the next Bob Dylan. While both were poetic rockers, they carved out distinctly different paths – although there were commonalities. Neither had a #1 song as an artist although both appeared on the #1 star-studded “We Are the World” in 1985. They also each came close to the top – Dylan with “Like a Rolling Stone” (#2) and “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (#2), Springsteen with “Dancing in the Dark” (#2). Finally, they both had songs they wrote reach the pinnacle when the artists were at their peak. In Dylan’s case, it was the Byrds with “Mr. Tambourine” in 1965. For Springsteen, his song “Blinded by the Light” reached the top in 1976 in the hands of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. The song was not a hit in Springsteen’s hands. Springsteen signed to Columbia Records – the same label as Dylan – in 1972. He delivered what he thought was a finished album on August 10, 1972, but head honcho Clive Davis rejected it, saying it still needed a single. ESS Since most of the band wasn’t available on short notice, Springsteen played guitar, bass, and keyboards. UCR The song is about “the sex escapades of an itinerant aspirant feeling his oats on the Jersey shore” ESS with the “off-color misadventures…wrapped…in coded metaphors.” ESS Springsteen said the song was a “young musician’s tale, kind of a litany of adventures. It was rather on the autobiographical side.” UCR “Along the way, we hit church dances, meet campus radicals, FBI agents and several loose women.” UCR It may be “too-much-by-half cleverness” ESS with its “internal rhymes that whiz past us like stones skipping across Greasy Lake.” ESS “The lyrics are a sort of impressionistic pastiche of a teenage night out on the Asbury Park boardwalk. At the time, Springsteen’s lyrics were Dylan-esque poetic excursions, not the concrete storytelling he’d adapt later.” SG Even Bruce has admitted “he doesn’t know what certain passages are about” ESS and that he gave his rhyming dictionary a real workout that night.” SG “If there’s a moral to ‘Blinded by the Light,’ here it is: excitement often comes wrapped in risk, and sometimes life is most thrilling when we’re out on a trapeze without a net.” ESS Alas, “Blinded by the Light” was released as a single but it failed to chart. The album went nowhere as well, selling a mere 23,000 in 1973. ESS Still, “you can hear plenty of the strengths that would eventually turn Springsteen into a star: The monster chorus, the finely observed everyday-life lyrical details, the life-affirming Clarence Clemons saxophone-bleats, the ‘whooooaa’” SG but it “is a messy scrawl of a song, played with a muddy immediacy that sounds just slightly out of sync. Springsteen was 23 when he recorded it, but he sang it in a garbled old-man mutter.” SG “Manfred Mann was probably an unlikely candidate to take Springsteen’s music to the American masses.” SG He was a South African-born keyboardist who moved to London in 1961 and formed a jazz-blues band. Three years later, his band hit #1 in the U.S. with a cover of the Exciters’ “Do Wah Diddy Diddy.” They also hit the top 10 with a cover of Dylan’s “The Mighty Quinn.” By 1971, the band had reformed as Manfred Mann’s Earth Band “replacing the original’s garage rock with a more progressive sound that incorporated classical themes.” UCR They recorded “Blinded by the Light” and “Spirit in the Night” for their 1976 album The Roaring Silence. Mann’s recording of “Light” is “much cleaner and heavier on showy musicianship than Springsteen’s original had been.” SG It “took the loose, folksy vibe of the original and gave it a harder edge, adding a lengthy guitar solo, Moog synthesizer and, for some reason, a snippet of the children’s piano lesson, ‘Chopsticks.’ Singer Chris Thompson skipped some verses entirely.” UCR “It sounds big and sharp and dramatic – Grand Funk-style Midwest-friendly arena-rock, but transformed into something clean and cinematic enough to compete with disco on the pop charts.” SG Mann’s version tweaked Springsteen’s original line “cut loose like a deuce” – a reference to a two-seater hot rod – as “revved up like a deuce” but the line was famously misunderstood as “wrapped up like a douche.” Springsteen has joked that’s probably why it went to #1. In any event, the song showed the world “how a little imagination and some talented players could transform Springsteen’s mostly acoustic track into an epic showstopper.” ESS

Growin’ Up Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 5/3/1972 (demo recording) at CBS Studio, 6/7/1972 and 6/27/1972 at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York Released: Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973), Live 1975/1985 (live box set, 1986), The Essential (2015), Chapter and Verse (2016), Best of (2024); demo: Tracks (box set, 1998), 18 Tracks (1999) Peak: 19 CL, 18 DF Click for codes to charts. Covered by: David Bowie (1973, #35 DF) About the Song: This was one of the four songs Springsteen performed for John Hammond that landed him a contract with Columbia Records. The demos are featured on the 1998 Tracks box set. MG-23 The song features “a whole range of metaphors to partially lift the veil on his adolescence.” MG-28 Bruce “expresses his refusal to fit the mold and accept the authority of his elders,” MG-28 as evidenced by lines like “I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd / But when they said, ‘Sit down,’ I stood up.” “Growin’ Up” “is structured around three verses and three refrains. Davi Sancious on piano gets the track rolling. His lyrical playing, which was influenced by R&B, works wonders…He is accompanied by two acoustic guitars in stereo. The drum and the bass come in at the third line to provide dynamic country-rock-style support, backed by a tambourine in the first refrain.” MG-23

Mary, Queen of Arkansas Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 5/3/1972 (demo) at CBS Studio; June 26-27, 1972 at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York Released: Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973), demo: Tracks (box set, 1998) About the Song: This was one of the four songs Springsteen performed for John Hammond that landed him a contract with Columbia Records. The demos are featured on the 1998 Tracks box set. It wasn’t until 2014 that Bruce explained a line in this song that “kept everyone wondering.” MG-30 He sings, “You’re not man enough for me to hate or woman enough for kissing.” It turns out “the subject of the song was the love a man felt for a transvestite.” MG-30 “It is the story of an impossible love.” MG-30 “Springsteen’s voice gently resonates warmth. He pours his heart and soul into telling his story.” MG-30

Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street? Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 5/3/1972 (demo) at CBS Studio; June 26-27, 1972 and 7/12/1972 at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York Released: Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973), demo: Tracks (box set, 1998) About the Song: This was one of the four songs Springsteen performed for John Hammond that landed him a contract with Columbia Records. The demos are featured on the 1998 Tracks box set. This song is about a memory Springsteen has of his father and his days driving a bus. “There was a huge gulf between Douglas Springsteen and the young musician who dreamed of turning professional.” MG-31 As Springsteen said, “There were two things that were unpopular in my house. One was me, the other one was my guitar.” MG-31 This is also a reference to the bus route Springsteen made from New Jersey to New York to see his girlfriend. MG-31 “David Sancious contributes to the texture of the piece with a piano accompaniment…while Springsteen takes on lead vocals, as well as two rhythmic acoustic guitar parts.” MG-31

Lost in the Flood Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 6/27/1972 and July 1972 (?) at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York Released: Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973), Live in New York City (2000) About the Song: On “Lost in the Flood,” Bruce follows “the tradition of the great American singer-songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s, first and foremost of whom was Bob Dylan…Its vision of society…is reminiscent of the oppressive, broken atmosphere of Dylan songs such as ‘My Back Pages’ and ‘Desolation Row.’ “ MG-32 Springsteen tells three stories – one of a “ragamuffin gunner who is back from Vietnam,” one about “Jimmy the Saint…who is a fan of stock car racing,” and a third that “depicts New York city dwellers who have lost touch with reality.” MG-32 What does it mean? Could it be that the vet is Jimmy and his car hobby leads to him meeting his end in New York? MG-32 In his sole appearance on the album, Steve Van Zandt creates a thunderclap sound at the song’s beginning by shaking an amp. MG-32 The song is “partly dominated by David Sancious’s piano: Springsteen, with no instrument to play on this piece, was free to concentrate fully on his vocal performance…He expresses his emotions with conviction and sensitivity.” MG-32

The Angel Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: June 26-27, 1972, 6/29/1972 and 10/26/1972 at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York Released: 2/23/1973 as the B-side of “Blinded by the Light,” Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973) About the Song: On “The Angel,” Bruce “foregrounds his all-consuming passion for the open road – the ultimate freedom in the United States – as well as for the world of bikers, whose love for their machines is sometimes lethal. There are two heroes here: The Angel, a biker who regards his machine as ‘a lethal weapon’…and Madison Avenue.” MG-33 Bruce “gives a remarkable performance; his rendition has an astonishing subtlety and depth, especially for a young man who was only 22 years old. His vocal mastery is perfect, his delivery totally sincere, and…his voice is…utterly compelling.” MG-33 “David Sancious provides invaluable backup with a delicate and lyrical piano part.” MG-33 Richard Davis, who has played with Sarah Vaughan, Eric Dolphy, Chet Baker, Van Morrison, Paul Simon, and others, “further enriches the end of the piece by playing his double bass with a bow.” MG-33

For You Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 6/27/1972 and 10/26/1972 at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York Released: May 1973 as the B-side of “Spirit in the Night,” Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973), The Essential (2003) Peak: 17 CL, 17 DF Click for codes to charts. Covered by: Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (1981, #15 AR, 17 DF) About the Song: This “suicide ballad” MG-34 is one of Bruce’s first love songs. It was inspired by his breakup with girlfriend Diane Lozito in late 1971. It is a “deeply tragic love story because we sense that the heroine is on the edge of a precipice and has taken the irreversible step, and the narrator can do nothing to help the woman he loves.” MG-34 This is “a gentle rock song typical of the Springsteen style. Springsteen contributes lead vocals and an acoustic guitar part, supported by an efficient rhythm section, consisting of Vini Lopez and Gary Tallent, as well as David Sancious’s piano and his organ contribution.” MG-34

Spirit in the Night Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: 9/11/1972 and 10/26/1972 at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York Released: May 1973 as a single, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973), Live 1975/1985 (live box set, 1986), The Essential (2003), Best of (2024) B-side: “For You” Peak: 9 CL, 18 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 4.6 video, 18.34 streaming Covered by: Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (1975, #40 BB, 59 CB, 43 HR, 20 CL, 19 DF) About the Song: Bruce wrote this song and “Blinded by the Light” after he’d submitted what he thought was a completed album to Columbia and head honcho Clive Davis rejected it because he didn’t hear a single. Interestingly, neither was a chart hit for Springsteen, but Manfred Mann’s Earth Band had success with both, reaching #40 and #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 respectively. Bruce said, he was inspired by Joe Cocker: “When I wrote the song I had his kind of voice in mind which is something that I rarely do.” MG-35 However, the lyrics “are totally in keeping with the universe of the New Jersey songwriter. Mission Man, the song’s main character, tells the story of a group of buddies who decide to go partying one Saturday night.” MG-35 “The night’s revelries take place at Greasy Lake,” MG-35 a fictional place based on several real lakes along the Jersey Shore. “Springsteen wrote a sort of melancholic R&B rock for this track.” MG-36 When he starts singing, “Van Morrison immediately comes to mind.” MG-36 Springsteen plays the bass part on the track “and he is a perfect match for Vini Lopez’s drums.” MG-36 “Springsteen was probably also on the organ…and the piano.” MG-36 He and Clarence Clemons sing “the backing vocals in the refrains and the choir vocals that give the instrumental bridge a rather gospel feel.” MG-36

It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen Recorded: June 26-27, 1972 and 10/26/1972 at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York Released: Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973), a href="https://davesmusicdatabase.blogspot.com/1986/11/bruce-springsteen-live-box-set-debuted.html">Live 1975/1985 (live box set, 1986), Tracks (box set, 1998) Peak: 23 CL, 21 DF Click for codes to charts. Covered by: David Bowie (1975, #43 CL, 26 CO, 35 DF) About the Song: This was one of the four songs Springsteen performed for John Hammond that landed him a contract with Columbia Records. The demos are featured on the 1998 Tracks box set. Hammond and Mike Appel, who became Bruce’s manager, sensed he “was a real songwriter, capable of reaching large audiences.” MG-38 “The narrator appears to be Springsteen himself, an adolescent from New Jersey who is discovering New York…The author does not shy away from using witticisms but what might sometimes be considered cliches should not be allowed to obscure the core meaning: an ambivalent feeling of being simultaneously repulsed and attracted by Manhattan and the multiple of colorful characters roaming the streets.” MG-38 The song’s introduction “is structured around Springsteen’s Martin D-28 and David Sancious’s piano with Vini Lopez making time on his hi-hat…The piano part is astonishing, a bluesy solo that does not always match the guitar…The whole band then launches in at a quick tempo, with Vini Lopez and Garry Tallent delivering an excellent rhythm section, arguably the most accomplished on the album.” MG-38 Springsteen “pushes his voice to breaking point, before resuming like a sleepwalker and continuing serenely.” MG-38

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by William Ruhlmann ESS EStreetShuffle.com MG Philippe Margotin & Jean-Michel Guesdon (2020). Bruce Springsteen – All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. Cassel (an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Ltd.): Great Britain. SG Stereogum (10/4/2019). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan UCR UltimateClassicRock.com (6/20/2013). “Top 100 Classic Rock Songs” Related DMDB Pages: Last updated 8/2/2025.