Someday, I’d love to see Bruce play “You’ll Be Comin’ Down” back-to-back with “Lucky Town” and see if he has the same epiphany that he had in Sunrise a few years ago…
…because it’s sure hard not to hear echoes of “Lucky Town” from 1992 when you listen to this under-the-radar track from Bruce’s 2007 Magic album, particularly the chorus:
Let’s set the musical similarities aside though, because lyrically the songs couldn’t be more extreme polar opposites. Whereas “Lucky Town” is optimistic, fueled by idealism tempered with life experience, “You’ll Be Comin’ Down” is downright cynical.
Something about Bruce’s vocal delivery keeps it from tipping over into outright bitterness, however. Instead, the singer seems at peace rather than resigned, confident rather than angry. That’s all in the delivery, because the lyrics tell a different story:
White roses and misty blue eyes
Red mornings, then nothin’ but gray skies
A cup of coffee, a heart shot clean through
The jacket you bought me gone daisy gray-blue
Bruce has a sure hand with metaphor, but he mostly restrains it in this song. Instead, he relies on color as his dominant conceit: the girl he sings about is vividly lit in vibrant colors, but everything she touches fades, from the skies above her to the gifts she bestowed. (It’s a little lazy to use gray twice–even modified as gray-blue–but we’ll let that slide.)
You’re smiling now but you’ll find out
They’ll use you up and spit you out now
Your head’s spinnin’ in diamonds and clouds
But pretty soon it turns out
You’ll be comin’ down now baby
You’ll be coming down
What goes around, it comes around and
You’ll be comin’ down
Reading those lines, it would be easy to hear spite and bitterness, but Bruce’s delivery is that of someone who’s lived a long life and is secure in the knowledge that life is full of ups and downs–and if you don’t live the life of someone who’s going to eventually have downs, you won’t be prepared for them when they come.
Easy street, a quick buck and true lies
Smiles as thin as those dusky blue skies
A silver plate of pearls my golden child
It’s all yours at least for a little while
Back to the color wheel we go, although this time it’s in service of a monetary metaphor, “golden child” serving in both senses. And then, as is often the case with Bruce’s songs, we arrive at the one sentence that captures the essence of the entire song:
You’ll be fine long as your pretty face holds out
Then it’s gonna get pretty cold out
That’s it right there: a prediction and a warning delivered with sadness and affection. The end of the verse and the bridge are basically identical in meaning, driving home the singer’s message (in case it’s been too subtle):
An empty stream of stars shooting by
You got your hopes on high
For a while you’ll go sparklin’ by
Just another pretty thing on high
The last verse ends the song on a weak note, in my opinion:
Like a thief on a Sunday morning
It all falls apart with no warning
Your cinnamon sky’s gone candy-apple green
The crushed metal of your little flying machine
These are odd metaphors: maybe I’m just unfamiliar with a life of crime, but exactly is it about Sundays that poses a danger to thieves? And I’m not sure why a green sky would be any less alarming, concerning, or foreboding than a red one.
But with preceding context, it’s pretty clear that Bruce is saying that someday this woman will lose her beauty and vivacity, and it may happen suddenly and to severe and immediate effect. There’s no indication that the object of the song is listening or will ever hear it, however, so we’re left to just consider it a message to heed ourselves.
IMHO, “You’ll Be Comin’ Down” is the weakest song on Magic, and perhaps that’s why Bruce has only ever played it live once, in the heart of that album’s tour in Columbus. Here’s a pro-shot snippet and an audio clip of the performance in its entirety.
It’s actually a solid performance, both on stage and on record, and the song itself isn’t bad either. It’s just not great.
Got a different opinion? Please share–when I find a Springsteen song I don’t particularly care for, I love finding reasons to change my mind.
You’ll Be Comin’ Down
Recorded: February-May 2007
Released: Magic (2007)
First performed: March 24, 2008 (Columbus, OH)
Last performed: March 24, 2008 (Columbus, OH)
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So Ken. My name is Linda and I am the one and i’d love to hear it live while I am on stage with him….I am in a wheelchair and as adept as I am I wonder if he’ll take the time to get me up there it’s a bucket wish to be sure. I was surprised by your comparison with you’ll be coming down now and ESPECIALLY the chorus. Pretty much note for note. His ah-ha in the beginning is great and to be expected with as many songs he pens that never see the light of day eh?? Magic is one of my fave albums. I always thought he was comparing a sunset with the green of a stormy sky about to go tornado
and that karma is a bitch. It’ll all come back on her some day. Even his face says your day is comin sister. I love that you delve into these songs as it makes me pay so much more close attention. Thanks a lot. Linda 
Thanks for the note, Linda! And you may be onto something with that stormy-sky green–I hadn’t thought of that. I hope you get your wish on the next tour!
I recently discovered your site, and love reading the various analyses of the songs and made me see some things in a new light – never made the connection between Darlington County and Delivery Man, for example.
As for this one, it’s actually one of my favorites off the Magic album, though it’s really a great album so it’s in hard competition. I held up a sign for it during the 2008 Magic concerts here in Sweden and Bruce noticed it but just said “haven’t rehearsed that one” or something like that.
My personal analyis of the song is a bit more specific; couldn’t it be a comment on the post-2000’s music industry? I’m getting a lot of American Idol vibes from the lines like “they’ll use you up and spit you out”, “you’ll be fine long as your pretty face holds out”, and “an empty stream of stars shootin’ by” is great wordplay. So instead of it being about the ups and downs of life, it’s about someone who is in the middle of their 15 minutes of fame, but will eventually have to come down to reality when their record company ditches them to move on to promote someone younger and more popular.
Great insights, Timmy! Thanks for sharing them and for reading!
Could the woman be the statue of liberty?
Could the line “The jacket you bought me gone daisy gray-blue” be a reference to civil war colors? The division in in the US?
Could the “thief on a Sunday morning” be a reference to right wing mega church pastors? Christians accepting what was (is) happening in the US and it’s affect on the world?
Could it be a thief having a come to Jesus moment/experience?
Possibly someone stealing the peaceful tranquility of a Sunday morning and the calm quiet falls apart leaving chaos and havoc?
“The crushed metal of your little flying machine”
A reference to wreckage from 9/11?
A reference to lofty hopes and dreams crashing to the ground?
I normally absolutely love your eloquent and insightful analyses of Bruce’s songs, but I respectfully disagree with your lack of enthusiasm for this one as I feel it’s one of the best on the album and *possibly* one of the best of the decade.
A few points on the lyrics…
When you described the lines, “You’ll be fine long as your pretty face holds out/Then it’s gonna get pretty cold out” as “a prediction and a warning delivered with sadness and affection,” I think something vital was being missed. In my not-so-humble opinion, these lines are delivered not with sadness but with a sneer, not with affection but with anger… and this is exhilarating precisely because it’s so uncharacteristic of our guy. Chief among Bruce’s many considerable strengths as an artist is his innate empathy and compassion, his humanism. He cares about the characters in his songs and his lyrics often possess a deep psychological awareness for how and why essentially good people can do essentially bad things. In this song, though, he’s displaying a remarkably rare emotion for him: disdain.
Referring to earlier lyrics, you commented, “Reading those lines, it would be easy to hear spite and bitterness…” and I’m going to suggest it “would be easy to hear” spite because spite is exactly what we’re hearing. Given how Bruce was feeling about America’s political situation at the time when MAGIC was released and given the thematic and emotional focus of several other songs on the album, I think Bruce was punching hard at what he perceived as a reckless abuse of power.
Rather than make song overtly political, though, he uses the metaphor of a failed relationship with a self-absorbed young woman to vent his fury. Hence, he refers to the woman’s “smiles as thin as those dusky blue skies” since a “thin” smile is known to be an insincere one, a polite masking of one’s true emotions and intentions. His lack of generosity in the song is most uncharacteristic and I think it gives the song a force, a bite, it would otherwise lack.
Oh, as for that final verse… With regards to “Like a thief on a Sunday morning/It all falls apart with no warning,” you ask, “but what exactly is it about Sundays that poses a danger to thieves?” I think there may have been a subtle but crucial misunderstanding of the line’s meaning. It’s not that a Sunday morning poses a danger to thieves, it’s that thieves on a Sunday morning pose a danger to their targets.
A thief is *far* likelier to target a house on a Saturday night because that’s when the occupants of the house are out at a bar or on a date or attending a party and so on. Going into the house in the dark of night also provides a cloak of secrecy to the thief. But for a thief coming into your house on a Sunday *morning* that causes things to “fall apart with no warning.” Who ever imagines a thief to invade their home in broad daylight when there’s an excellent chance the house will have *at least* one person home? Again, this is Bruce employing a Dylanesque snarl at someone (ostensibly a woman with a “pretty face” but really a slick, irresponsible politician) that they’re going to be hit hard because “What goes around, it comes around.”
Finally, and *hopefully* not to sound like a pedantic jerk — too late, I’m sure! — but here’s a thought about the “Your cinnamon sky’s gonna candy-apple green” line. A “cinnamon sky” refers to a sky with a warm, reddish-brown hue, one usually seen at sunset. It can be quite soft and soothing. But a candy-*apple* green? Most people think a red apple simply looks more tasty and inviting than does a green one. In comparison to a warm, reddish-brown sunset, a candle-apple one could easily seem cold and strange (How many times have you seen a green sky?), certainly not reassuring. But why did Bruce choose the color green as opposed to, say, the more ominous black? Eh, probably just because it rhymed easily with “your little flying machine.”
And not to put too fine a point on it, but I think he describes the machine/plane as “little” just to get in one final swipe at the object of his disgust. Pissed off and unapologetic about it, he can’t resist a parting shot. I can practically see him dismissively waving his hand and scoffing about “your *little* flying machine”… that will, of course, soon be comin’ down.
All that said, personal taste is, well, personal. We just responded quite differently to this song. And maybe I simply had way too much time on my hands to write such a lengthy comment. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
In any case, I’m excited to one day read your take on This Hard Land!