We are going seriously obscure today.
So obscure, in fact, that when the dice roll came up with this track, I had no idea what it was.
Surprise #2: my collection search actually yielded a hit. On a collection of ancient demos I may not have ever listened to… lo and behold, “Hollywood Kids.”
Not much I can say about this track. It’s never been released in any format, and Bruce is only known to have performed it once, about 46 years ago, during his audition for Mike Appel, who would become his first manager. Springsteenlyrics.com pegs the recording date as circa May-June 1972.
Lyrically, it fits right in with Bruce’s early work, rife with alliteration…
Lonely hard-head losers dressed in the tinsel of the times
Learn all the latest lines and the order in which they come
…and colorful imagery limning seamy street life.
So perfumed sweet and so obscene
Like the fancy dancers of our dirty green
Oh they know hello and goodbye but not what goes in between
Yeah, and its such a scene on Saturday night
For most of the song, it seems like “Hollywood Kids” is just a street scene painting without any real narrative or message, perhaps simply a songwriting practice exercise.
…and then the last verse hits:
And on Monday here I stand alone on this littered stage
Like an animal who forgot he was in a cage
Just a restless soul, just waiting for ’em to come
Them Hollywood kids each and everyone
And the song flips on itself, as you realize that you have indeed been listening to a painting, as seen from the vantage point of the singer who now stands alone on a Monday-morning stage, waiting…. just waiting, restlessly, for those so-foreign Hollywood Kids to come back. Waiting, with nowhere to go, like an animal who forgot he was in a cage.
A twist of alienation and fascination that could only come from a 22-year-old New Jersey kid who finds himself alone with a guitar in L.A.
As the singer signs off: Yeah, that’s it for that one.
Hollywood Kids
Recorded: April 1972
Never released
Never performed
Looking for your favorite Bruce song? Check our full index. New entries every week!
