These days you don't wait on Romeos you wait on those BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN POLL RESULTS

LL's ad - it's kind of weird how modest the tagline is. Shouldn't it be something like: '...packs more genius into every second than Albert Einstein managed in his whole life'?

Haven't voted for anything so far. Afraid my ballot - as someone who's only embraced Springsteen in the last seven or eight years – was not heavy on the deep cuts.

51. Something In The Night from Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
90 points, 3 votes including 1 first place vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5QDOJNyLNM

oops - that's number 50 of course, not 51

yesssss, weinberg's turn in the spotlight

well really darkness is p much max's record front to back but it's never so apparent as it is here

49. Glory Days from Born In The USA (1984)
90 points drawing with number 50, 4 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQpW9XRiyM

Of all the big BITUSA singles, that's the one that, for me, has suffered the most for overfamiliarity. Didn't make my ballot. (And for those critiquing lyrics, "speedball" instead of "fastball" always drove me nuts, too.) I do love Little Steven and his Little Mandolin in the video, though.

yeah i really can't handle Glory Days, def my least favourite track on the album. seems to fulfill every rubbish cliche that people think Bruce is about and yet usually isn't

I've always hated "Glory Days"

So I guess my #1 vote for Something In The Night helped get it into the countdown at least

I love that song so much you guys. The way the guitar comes in all bright and Byrds like...Bruces whoaaaaa's...the way Max's drums sound like thunder rolls... it's so fucking great.

seems to fulfill every rubbish cliche that people think Bruce is about and yet usually isn't

Yeah, I'm not a big fan. It does have a good kicker: "Time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of ..." But it tips over into sentimentality -- an ever-present danger with Bruce, but one he avoids more often than not.

glory days is good. the "speedball" thing is loltypical.

it doesn't tip over into sentimentality! the whole thing is sentimentality

I kinda like it but I didn't always

48. My Hometown from Born In The USA (1984)
91 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77gKSp8WoRg

I know I am a sucker for these sentimental Bruce songs but this one makes me a little sad

This one I like, even though I didn't vote for it. The bit at the end where he drives his kid around town as they're getting ready to leave it -- hokey, but it works.

it doesn't tip over into sentimentality! the whole thing is sentimentality

I think it's more complicated -- it's sort of an indictment of sentimentality as a useless bulwark against a disappointing life. But the chorus is so enthusiastic that it drowns the whole thing in syrup.

I think he's kinda going for the same effect of dressing up some really lonesome and brutal sentiments in a contrastingly joyous arrangement as "Hungry Heart," but misses the mark just a little bit.

Yeah -- "Hungry Heart" works for me, "Glory Days" doesn't.

agreed.

Will someone pleeeeeease gif that part of the GD video where lil steven makes that gross face and holds his guitar vertically? That has made me laugh for the better part of 30 yrs! I deserve it.

amazing that "My Hometown" hit the top ten.

I love "Glory Days", & as we've noted before, the extra verse he cut out in the final version makes the song more of a piece with "My Hometown"

I love that song so much you guys. The way the guitar comes in all bright and Byrds like...Bruces whoaaaaa's...the way Max's drums sound like thunder rolls... it's so fucking great.

Kinda wish I'd put this on my ballot now.

I think the worst thing to happen to "Glory Days" is that it became Classic Rock radio's go-to track from BitUSA when playlists got cut down in recent years.

second biggest BIUTSA chart hit.

Holy crap, "Glory Days" was released more than a year after "Dancing in the Dark" (and three years after it was recorded).

Little Steven used to joke about how he left E-Street early on in the sessions, and that when the record finally came 2+ years later, he was still on all but one or two of the songs.

disappointed this wasn't higher...

47. Point Blank from The River (1980)
96 points, 4 votes including one first place vote (mine!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYpzN_BEE-8

Heard "Glory Days" on the radio this morning, was awesome.

Long '78 versions of "Point Blank" are awesome.

never liked point blank, but disc 2 of the river still hasn't really gelled for me yet.

I'm still waiting for him to buy me those fucking shoes he promised.

yeah i really can't handle Glory Days, def my least favourite track on the album. seems to fulfill every rubbish cliche that people think Bruce is about and yet usually isn't

― Jamie_ATP, Wednesday, February 27, 2013 12:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this comment's stuck in my craw, and i think it's because bruce IS about every one of those cliches. bruce is a lot of things! it's not the side of myth that speaks to me, but still my favorite thing in the world is going to diners in jersey where the walls are covered with framed photos of bruce (and of course one photo of him visiting the place, always). that's what i think of when i think of "glory days".

xpost He's still driving for them--keeps missing the exit for that outlet mall.

I have a feeling "Glory Days" is one of those songs, like "The River," pretty much drawn directly from experience.

haha what?

The song is a seriocomic tale of a man who now ruefully looks back on his so-called glory days and those of people he knew during high school. The lyrics to the first verse are autobiographical, being a recount of an encounter Springsteen had with former Little League baseball teammate Joe DePugh in the summer of 1973.[1]

"The River" is about his sister.

46. Working On The Highway from Born In The USA (1984)
101 points, 5 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QbReXuCR6U

^^^ such a FUN song to sing in the car

Another peppy song about the tragic and downtrodden.

peace. i was reading "drawn directly from experience" as "autobiographical."

For BITUSA jaunty hard-luck tales, I went with "Darlington County" over this one. But nothing wrong with "Highway."

xxp Ha, I agree. Midway through my journey from dislike to moderate fandom I concentrated on a cooler Darkness/Nebraska version of Springsteen and held the ham at arm's length but later I realised that the ham was fundamental, especially live, and Glory Days epitomises that. The lyric's great - full of cliches but they're his cliches and they work.

man yer lookin at two big SPINDERS

First one so far that I voted for. Not mad about the studio iteration, but it's such a reliably wonderful moment in the live set.

One big spindle:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Berwyn_car_spindle_20070707.jpg