Some days the dice let you down. But being the completist that I am…
“Black Sun Rising” is a very early Springsteen composition. To my knowledge it was never recorded in a studio, and Bruce only performed it twice, both times in 1970, during his Steel Mill era.
The only known recording is virtually unintelligible, so I’m not even going to begin to take it apart and analyze it. Feel free to give it a listen if you want to try, but I’ll understand if you sit this one out.
Springsteenlyrics.com got further than I did figuring out the lyrics–enough to figure out that it’s a very unsubtle, of-the-time polemic:
Well there’s a black sun risin’
Shining darkness on the White House
Well there’s a black sun risin’
Shining darkness on the White House
Turn on the white light protection, come on
Now there’s a new day dawn
When no-one’s gonna pay the cost
They never ???
???
Oh revolution is ours
Man has told me to propagate love
I’m gonna get you, oh, oh, oh, oh, all right
Yeah, this is one rarity I don’t need to hear in concert.
Just rolled the dice again and got something from the HT/LT era that’s much easier to work with. Look for it soon.
Black Sun Rising
Recorded: N/A
Released: N/A
First Performed: April 18, 1970 (Toms River, NJ)
Last Performed: June 13, 1970 (Bricktown, NJ)
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