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Bruce and the real Boss, 1975

"I've been working real hard,
trying to get my hands clean,
Tonight we'll drive that dusty road
from Monroe to Angeline,
To buy you a gold ring
and pretty dress of blue,
Baby just one kiss will get these things for you,
A kiss to seal our fate tonight,
A kiss to prove it all night.
Prove it all night,
Girl there's nothing else that we can do,
So prove it all night, prove it all night,
And girl I'll prove it all night for you."

"Billy he's down by the railroad tracks
Sittin' low in the back seat of his Cadillac
Diamond Jackie, she's so intact
As she falls so softly beneath him
Jackie's heels are stacked
Billy's got cleats on his boots
Together they're gonna boogaloo down Broadway
and come back home with the loot
It's midnight in Manhattan, this is no time to get cute
It's a mad dog's promenade
So walk tall or baby don't walk at all"

"Born in the U.S.A." was the first CD I ever saw or heard. I can still remember the way it smelled. My dad brought it home with a CD player. A what?! I swear, it was as if he'd come home with a handful of cosmic microfossils from Jupiter.

Bruce is/was a big Warren Zevon fan

I slept on Bruce for many years and I really have no good excuse for it. I guess I just wrote him off as cheese. I admittedly was naïve . His lyrics are brilliant and his song writing is phenomenal, especially his early stuff. Before "Born in the U.S.A." and before he pulled Courtney Cox up on stage to dance.

"With her killer graces and her secret places
That no boy can fill with her hands on her hips
Oh and that smile on her lips
Because she knows that it kills me
With her soft french cream
Standing in that doorway like a dream
I wish she'd just leave me alone
Because french cream won't soften them boots
And french kisses will not break that heart of stone
With her long hair falling
And her eyes that shine like a midnight sun
Oh-o she's the one, she's the one

That Thunder in your heart
At night when you're kneeling in the dark
It says you're never gonna leave her
But there's this angel in her eyes
That tells such desperate lies
And all you want to do is believe her
And tonight you'll try just one more time
To leave it all behind and to break on through
Oh she can take you, but if she wants to break you
She's gonna find out that ain't so easy to do
And no matter where you sleep tonight or how far you run
Oh-o she's the one, she's the one

Oh-o and just one kiss
She'd fill them long summer nights
With her tenderness that secret pact you made
Back when her love could save you from the bitterness
Oh she's the one, oh she's the one
Oh she's the one, oh she's the one
Oh she's the one, oh she's the one"

Listen to "Greetings from Asbury Park", "The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle", "Born to Run", "Darkness on the Edge of Town", "The River"... those records are no joke, man. Classic rock n' roll records with very unique, winding story-telling lyrics not unlike Hold Steady does these days. Like Dylan meets Van Morrison.

After a detour down folk's dusty roads, Das Boss is back again with the E-Street Band. October 2nd they'll release "Magic", an 11-song set recorded with producer Brendan O'Brien in two months earlier this year in Atlanta.

Springsteen's 15th studio effort is the first E Street Band collaboration since 2002's The Rising and follows 2006's The Seeger Sessions and 2005's acoustic Devils & Dust.

"Magic" returns to "high-energy rock," says Jon Landau, Springsteen's longtime manager (and former MC5 and Jackson Browne producer), in a statement, adding that the album is "light on its feet, incredibly well played … and, as always, has plenty to say."

WORD.

"Magic" - track listing
1. Radio Nowhere
2. You'll Be Comin' Down
3. Livin' in the Future
4. Your Own Worst Enemy
5. Gypsy Biker
6. Girls in Their Summer Clothes
7. I'll Work for Your Love
8. Magic
9. Last to Die
10. Long Walk Home
11. Devil's Arcade