OT: Blinded by the Light lyrics

[Hardtail]

I heard this song on the radio on the way home from work.

 

I still don't know what this guy is talking about after hearing this tune for the last 30 years.

 

Can anyone enlighten me?

[ekoldr]

It's drugs man BLinded by the light is like Coke cuz your pupils get hella big! and then after you wrap a duce and roll with it! hahaha Jk I really don't know

[Hardtail]

Originally posted by ekoldr:

It's drugs man BLinded by the light is like Coke cuz your pupils get hella big! and then after you wrap a duce and roll with it! hahaha Jk I really don't know

You're probably right.. or close.

 

Everytime I hear this tune, I tell myself I would probably understand it if I were on an acid trip.

[ekoldr]

Tell me why that always happens, You blown out of your mind, you listen to a song and you get it! You even stand up and tell everyone you see about what the songs means! So much fun..

[Guitarzan]

i seen a skit where guys were arguing what the lyrics were. they all had thier own idea and it was funny as heck. it may have been SNL but i can't remember.

[Tedster]

I saw Springsteen on VH-1 "Storytellers"...he described how it was just him, several packs of cigarettes, a notebook, a guitar, and a rhyming dictionary when he wrote that song.

[A String]

Originally posted by Guitarzan:

i seen a skit where guys were arguing what the lyrics were. they all had thier own idea and it was funny as heck. it may have been SNL but i can't remember.

Wasn't that in one of the "Just For Laughs" festivals?

[Guitarzan]

that may have been, now that you mention it.

[Guitar55]

Originally posted by Tedster:

I saw Springsteen on VH-1 "Storytellers"...he described how it was just him, several packs of cigarettes, a notebook, a guitar, and a rhyming dictionary when he wrote that song.

True, but he also goes into detail about the meanings of each of the phrases

 

Madman drummers = Vini "Mad Dog " Lopez

Indinas in the summer = his little league team

teenage diplomat = Bruce himself

 

He gets to the line about "the adolescent pumps his way into his hat" - "Self explanatory"

[Ricochet]

There are lots of Web pages on "misheard lyrics" that have a lot of entries on this one.

 

There's a repeated line in this one that always sounded to me like:

 

"Wrapped up like a douche, you know they rode her in the night."

[S. Yeti Bigfoot, Esq.]

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

 

It makes no sense whatsoever, but that's what he's saying in the part that seems unintelligible. The rest of it is understandable, but still makes no sense.

[Ricochet]

Originally posted by Sasquatch51:

The rest of it is understandable, but still makes no sense.

Just like any other Bruce Springsteen song. Bruce Springsteen fans, you can have him! I never saw the point of listening to him.

[Justus A. Picker]

Originally posted by Sasquatch51:

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

 

It makes no sense whatsoever, but that's what he's saying in the part that seems unintelligible. The rest of it is understandable, but still makes no sense.

The deuce is a deuce an a qwuata, the runner is a drag racer.

[Dr. Ellwood]

Originally posted by Ricochet:

Originally posted by Sasquatch51:

The rest of it is understandable, but still makes no sense.

Just like any other Bruce Springsteen song. Bruce Springsteen fans, you can have him! I never saw the point of listening to him.

Agreed, but what a great back up band the E.Street guys are!!

[fantasticsound]

Bad enough you have to figure out the meaning of his lyric in this song, but Bruce's version sounds like he has foresight to channel Dylan in an especially drunken era. I can't stand Bruce's version of the song.

 

Listening to the Manfred Mann version I never worried about what the lyrics might mean. I simply enjoyed the musical and vocal interpretation of the song. Really, I did.

[Tedster]

Count me as a Springsteen fan. No I don't have every one of his CDs and hang on every tune he writes, but I dig a lot of his stuff.

 

So there. YMMV (Your Momma Might Vomit?)

[fantasticsound]

Well, I'm a Springsteen fan, too. And most drawn by his early hits. But his version of that song sounds like an incomprehensible drunk to me.

[D_dup3]

I'd have to admit that I have no idea what the lyrics mean precisely but I think that's because they may have no precise meaning, being what John Lennon once decried (refering to both Bob Dylan & himself) as "gobbledygook".

Sometimes rock lyricists exploit the sung word's evocative qualities or mix in personal references that cannot possibly carry the same meaning to listeners.

 

Actually I thought Brooooce's first LP was pretty much a mishmash of Dylan-esque poetry songraps with a touch of Van Morrison ("Spirits in The Night"). Quite disappointing considering his being hyped at the time as The New Dylan (simultaneous covers of Time & Newsweek concurrent with his first album!)...& that Born To Run thing was so exaggerated!

 

For a long time I thought Tom Petty was much more in honestly touch with both his muse & his fans (plus he had a greater knack for constructing catchy rock progressions).

BS did finally win me over though when he did that single from Born In The USA, "Cover Me".

Now that's a song that expresses teenage angst with no cloying verbiage!

[Shoes]

Not... a Boss fan. Have none of his music at all.

 

But I do have a large quantity of Manfred Mann material. They covered a handful of Bruce's stuff and tried as best they could to make rock&roll out of it.

Some of it worked... remember how we would get exicted when they played Blinded without cutting the guts out of it.

[Tone Taster]

Here's some spew from cyberspace regarding the lyrics:

 

Madman dummers bummers,

Indians in the summer,

With a teenager diplomat

And the dumps with the mumps

As the adolescent pumps his way into his hat"

 

-- obviously this verse is just an introduction of the members in the narrator's band. It also suggest that the main character of the song, possibly the narrator himself (temporarily referring to himself in third person) is sick. However, dispite his condition, he is going to engage in sexual intercourse, suggested by the fat that he is pumping his way into a hat, or jimmy hat, a.k.a. a condom.

 

"With a boulder my shoulder,

feeling kinda older,

I tripped the merry-go-round

With this very unpleasin', sneezin' and wheezin,

the calliope crashed to the ground

(pickup)

the calliope crashed to the ground"

 

-- A lot of metaphors in this verse. The boulder on his shoulder is just another way to say there is a lot of weight on his shoulder. The members of the band know that this member, also the main focus of the song, in about to mave sex with a girl, probably named mary, and he feels obligated to perform well and come back with exciting stories to tell his friends. By stating "i tripped the merry-go-round," he has come up with a clever way to say that he accomplished his goals of making his girl, Mary, achieve an orgasm. Now, it was not very pleasant because, as i have stated, he was sneezing and wheezing due to the fact that he was not all that well. Maybe he had a cold. I don't know, I don't need to know, but whatever he had, Mary now has it. Lets all hope it wasn't chlamydia. Anyway, the sex, being good as sex usually is, caused him to knock over or possibly drop his calliope; a musical instrument, supporting my theory that he is in a band.

 

"Some silicon sister with a manager mister

told me I got what it takes.

I'll run you on sonny to something strong

play the song with the funky break"

 

-- here we find out a lot about our beloved Mary. Not only was she boning the main character int he song, but she has a large bust and works at an indoor/outdoor restaurant. Her manager is a big music fan and often allows band to perform gigs at his restaurant, suggesting that perhaps its a diner, i don't know for sure. The manager of the restaurant thinks that the main character's band would be a lovely gig to play at his restaurant, and he likes the music so much that he would like our character to honor him with a personal performance of the song with the funky break.

 

"And go-cart Mozart was checkin' out the

weather charts see if it was safe outside

And little ealy birdir gave my arms a curly-whirly

and asked me if i needed a ride

(pickup)

asked me if i needed a ride"

 

-- Go-cart Mozart refers to the restaurant's manager. He is fueling the way for Mozart, the main character, to have an opportunity to play the restaurant. He is checking the weather because, as i said, the restaurant allows its customers to each outside, much like Checkers does today. When the main character arrived early at the restaurant one morning to set up for his big deput, the manager was excited to see him, as well as excited for his fist performance. He did a small, not too difficult dance manuever with the main character in celeration, and asked our main character if he needed a ride. Or, for our non PG13 audience, offered our main character a drug - most likely cocaine.

 

Bridge: "She got down but she never got tired

She's gonna make it to the night

She's gonna make it through the night"

 

-- Apparently Mary is by no means an innocent young girl. She got down, verifying that she too indulged herself in her fair share of nose candy, and apparently she never got tired of it, suggesting perhaps she had a drug problem that did not go unnoticed by her man-friend, our main character. Clearly she had enough cocaine to last her the day, through the night, because she would make it through the night. As we all know, the benefits of cocaine are accompanied by a horrible comedown experienced not so long after inhaling the drug. She apparently had enough powder that she could avoid the come down through the night. We should only be so lucky.

 

"Oh momma that's where the fun is

But momma that's where the fun is

Momma always told me not to look

in the eyes on the sun

But momma that's where the fun is"

 

-- The main character's mom knows about her son's admonishing recreational activities. Although he asures her that everything is fine, he admits that his mother always told him not to confuse what is real with misleading illusions. In other words, cocaine, in his mother's eyes, is not fun, but a fake high, and his mother warned him about that. Still, he believes its fun. Why? he is passed the stage of recreational use, and is now dependent on the stimulant to make it through the day.

 

"So brimestone-baritone, anti-cyclone Rolling Stone

Preacher from the East,

says dethrown the dictaphone, hit it in its funny bone

thats what they expect atleast"

 

-- Either way, his band has gotten a gig at the restaurant. They are all hopped up on cocaine and are playing in their patented "funky" manner. They don't believe it's their strongest style, but it is what the audience expects, so they will give them what they want.

 

"It's a new grown chaperon standing in the corner

watching the young girls dance

and some fresh sown moonstone messing with his frozen zone,

only reminding him of romance

(pickup)

and the callidope crashed to the ground"

 

-- The new grown chaperon standing in the corner suggest that the main character, as well as Mary, the members of his band, and all the people who would be enjoying their music at the restaurant are all "new drivers," or around the age of 16 (at least that is the age you have to be to get your lisence in MD). The guy in the corner, also on coke, is getting really horny watching the girls his age dance. (why does cocaine always do that to you!?!?!?!?!?!?) I digress. This time, the callidope, no longer the calliope, crashes to the ground. I don't know if you noticed the "D" now present in the name of this musical instrument. This now suggests that his high from the cocaine, or, dope, has worn off - a terrible feeling. Callidope, also the Greek Muse of epoch poetry, is a creative way to add in a subtle metaphor, open for interpritation obviously, but clearly signifying that once the character crashed from lack of cocaine, his openness to new ideas, creativity, and experience vanished as well. No longer do things have meaning, everything just sucks. What a shame.

 

"Now Scott with the sling-shot finially found a tender spot

and throws his lover in the sand

and some blood-shot forget-me-not

said daddy's waX X X ?buck-shot? turn up the band"

 

-- To my digust this website did not have all the words to this last verse. But Scott, as we find out, is the name of this man in the corner who has recently come down off of his cocaine inflicted high. However, he still feels slightly horny from the long day he has spent on the drug wanting to sodimize everything he sees. He proceeds to bang a girl, but not in a just way. He becomes a rapist. yet, with no one noticing, the band continues to play. It's unfortunate because we don't know if he gets away with it. Ah, but we do. Let's check out the chorus.

 

"Blinded by the light

revved up like a deuce

Another runner in the night"

 

-- He was spotted. In attempt to arrest him, the police chase him. He, is fleeing in his car. Police helicopters and cars are blinding him with spot lights and those familiar red and blue pieces of shit that sit on top of their cars. He is another runner in the night.

[Griffinator]

Originally posted by Sasquatch51:

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

 

It makes no sense whatsoever, but that's what he's saying in the part that seems unintelligible. The rest of it is understandable, but still makes no sense.

It would probably make more sense if you saw the actual lyric...

 

"Revved up like a deuce, another roller in the night

[S. Yeti Bigfoot, Esq.]

Originally posted by Griffinator:

Originally posted by Sasquatch51:

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

 

It makes no sense whatsoever, but that's what he's saying in the part that seems unintelligible. The rest of it is understandable, but still makes no sense.

It would probably make more sense if you saw the actual lyric...

 

"Revved up like a deuce, another roller in the night

Nope...still doesn't make sense....

[Tone Taster]

Well, this song at least has every element of rock and roll:

 

Intoxication, fornication, women, and fast cars

[Ricochet]

And douches.

[Tone Taster]

Originally posted by Ricochet:

And douches.

Do you think Massengil could use the tune for ads?

 

What about Summer's Eve using "Summer Dream" but w/word substitution?

[Hardtail]

I never knew that Bruce Springsteen wrote that tune.

 

That explains everything.

[Guitar55]

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

Well, I'm a Springsteen fan, too. And most drawn by his early hits. But his version of that song sounds like an incomprehensible drunk to me.

Interesting take, Neil. I find Mann's version to be pop fluff, sterile, dull and just plain annoying. Bruce's, on the other hand, is raucous, alive, vibrant and exciting.

 

Oh well, to each his own.

[Boggs]

Nice take on it, yZe!

[Guitar55]

Yeah, except that lot os the lyrics quoted are incorrect! :-)

[fantasticsound]

Originally posted by Guitar55:

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

Well, I'm a Springsteen fan, too. And most drawn by his early hits. But his version of that song sounds like an incomprehensible drunk to me.

Interesting take, Neil. I find Mann's version to be pop fluff, sterile, dull and just plain annoying. Bruce's, on the other hand, is raucous, alive, vibrant and exciting.

 

Oh well, to each his own.

...What can I say.. I don't get that at all from Bruce's version. Born To Run was "raucous, alive, vibrant and exciting" IMHO. But Blinded By The Light? I don't see that at all. Manfred Mann's fluff?? Uh.. I don't think we define fluff the same way. I see that version as being forceful with interesting contrasts of vocals (wet & dry, smooth and gravelly), powerful changes of pace. Absolutely exciting.

 

Like you said, to each his own.