Roll of the Dice: Garden State Parkway Blues

Before “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” and “Kitty’s Back,” before even “Thundercrack,” there was “Garden State Parkway Blues” — Bruce’s prototype for the epic show-stopping, song-changing, band-vamping showcase that brings his main sets to their will-it-ever-end end.

Because its such a long song (thirty freaking minutes!), unrecorded and raw, it’s tempting to dismiss “Garden City Parkway Blues” as early self-indulgence or an excuse for an extended jam session.

But to do so would be a mistake for any Springsteen scholar, for “Garden State Parkway Blues” not only provides remarkably transparent insight into Bruce’s contemporary influences, it also rewards even a casually attentive listener with the seeds of songs that he wouldn’t write for years or even decades to come.

I’m not kidding.

Let’s take a listen, but first an important note: because the song is so long, and because there are so many notable passages to discuss, I’m going to repost the same video several times below–each time with a different timestamp bookmark, however, so you can easily jump to the place I’m discussing. Bruce never recorded the song in the studio (that we know of), but we’re fortunate enough to have a wonderful quality recording of a Steel Mill performance from 1970 to use as reference.

If you have the time, start by listening to the entire song and see how many other songs you hear echoes of.

We start with a casual riff, before Vini’s powerful drums kick in around 0:45, and the rest of the band shortly after. Bruce enters with his vocals…

Got a woman lives across the track
Whoa lady won’t you come rub my back
Yeah you know I love her

I got a woman live across the town
Whoa pretty woman won’t you show ’em how to put’em down, know I dig it now
Show ’em how to put ’em down, know that I dig it
shows ’em how to put ’em down, you know that I dig it

…and for a while we’re in catchy but relatively unremarkable territory until around 2:00, where we have our first jam.

And then around the three-minute mark, the band picks up the pace and crescendos, landing with a “Good morning!” and a shift into what sounds almost like a different song.

When the band and vocals resume, we suddenly realize: Bruce has constructed a song very similar in content and structure to “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles.

(That classic song was brand new at the time: The Beatles released it on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, and Bruce most likely wrote “Garden State Parkway Blues” in 1969 (his first known performance of the song is from that year). It is extremely likely that it was at least a subconscious influence, and almost certainly an overt one.)

Seriously, take a listen:

Vitamin B1, Niacin
Five percent iron, how can I help but win?
My very best friend, when I get up in the morning
Whoa my Kellogs Corn Flakes are my very best friend
And I don’t have to look very hard
‘Cause right inside’s your very special 3D baseball card

(Hey, I didn’t say “Garden State Parkway Blues” was remarkable for its literary depth, did I? Luckily, Bruce doesn’t devote all thirty minutes to waxing poetic about breakfast cereal.)

When I get up in the morning and I say “Well goodbye hon”
Now you make sure the kids don’t forget to take their lunch”
I clean myself up and I stumble out the door
Into my garage and I jump into my old Ford
But the damn thing it don’t wanna start
But I don’t care, what do I care?
It’s really got a heart

Hello there, “One Step Up.” Did you catch that 1970 echo of a song that Bruce wouldn’t write and record for another 17 years?

But wait, there’s more: right before the five-minute mark, we get our first faint hint of a familiar riff… but only for a few seconds. It’ll be back, but first we have the introduction of our theme, and the next instance of Bruce wearing an influence on his sleeve.

I got the Garden State Parkway Blues
Early in the morning, gets you without warning
Going to the job, fighting off the road hogs
Punch in at nine, punch out at five 
Punch in at nine, punch out at five
Punch in at nine, punch out at five
Punch in at nine, punch out at five

But boss he thinks I’m crazy
And says “Son, why are you so lazy?
And if you won’t leave me alone, I’m gonna mosey on home
Ain’t no, yes, no, no son of a bitch”
Punch in at nine, punch out at five
Punch in at nine, punch out at five
Punch in at nine, punch out at five
Punch in at nine, punch out at five
Punch in at nine, punch out at five
Punch in at nine, punch out at five
Punch in at nine, punch out at five
Punch in at nine, punch out at five
Punch in at nine, punch out at five

Bruce clearly had nightmares about nine-to-five work even then. But beyond the context, does the increasingly manic and desperate escalation of the “punch in at nine, punch out at five” remind you of another song?

Take a listen to another contemporary hit around the time Bruce wrote “Garden State Parkway Blues.”

“They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” was a 1966 novelty hit, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Cash Box Top 100. It’s likely Bruce had it in mind when writing (and certainly performing) this segment of the song. (That’s drummer Vini Lopez really getting into character on the backing vocals.)

At the six-minute mark, the song transforms again. Now, we’re in a cool jazz club, and Bruce resumes the blues:

Well I work all day, I make terrible pay
I get home and I just can’t get to sleep
Yeah my woman gives me something, Lord, that got my mind hummin’
Oh but it don’t work I’m just too weak
I got electric bills, doctor bills, baby bills, I don’t know
Just about everything but a dollar bill

(that’s a pretty clever line)

And I haven’t even paid my rent yet
I got 12 more payments on my car
Six more on the guitar 

(a bit of a meta moment)

Yeah now my mama wants a new dress, ah what a damn mess
Don’t know what I’m gonna do
But I’m sick and tired of hearin’ about all that damn bills
I’m tired about worrying about it
They’re goin’ to hell
Yeah!
Alright
Hey!

And now we’re in our second major jam. Listen carefully, though, and you’ll hear more faint echoes of a  future classic, especially around the 8:50 mark.

Another change-up comes our way now:

Well I don’t know where I’m goin’ and I don’t understand but that’s alright
Because the only thing I feel is the touch of your hand in the night
Cars on the parkway they pull up and stare
Ask where I’m goin’ and I tell ’em that I’m there
Yeah, and I just don’t even care

The people I meet are all hip to the latest scene
They sit around reading Rolling Stone magazine

(That’s a remarkably early reference to Rolling Stone–the magazine only debuted barely two years before this performance.)

I ask how they can sit so sweetly serene
While there’s thousands of places that they have never seen
Oh they have never been
Goin’ back, goin’ back, goin’ back

That whole passage, by the way–from “cars on the parkway” through  “they have never seen”–is very reminiscent of another Sgt. Pepper track:

Jam time again!

And at 11:44, there it is again… that naggingly familiar riff. And again at 12:53… what is that song?

Signs on the highway don’t mean nothing
Two-eyed monsters keep on coming
Don’t know where I’m goin’ but I just keep running
Away, away

This is a relatively strong passage, not just for its metaphor, but for the way it brings the road-blues part of the song to a climax before Bruce gets all introspective-like. But first, Steel Mill goes ethereal as our narrator zones out on his long drive. Is that a recorder we hear?

You know life ain’t so easy, life ain’t always so sweet
When you got nowhere to go, nothing to eat
You got holes in your shoes, clear on through to your feet
Sleeping on the damn cold cement floor, but no place else to sleep
Sure can be a drag sometimes, oh it just ain’t no fun

You know I used to tell myself
Oh some day you’re gonna be driving a, a big Cadillac
Oh so shiny and black 

I see you, “Cadillac Ranch!” Thought you could sneak by under Bruce’s breath, didn’t you? But no–we caught you, making your first lyrical appearance a full decade before we’d next hear you.

And you’ll be attending all them special business office luncheons
And have a pretty secretary to sit on your lap
But as I got older I just didn’t want that
Whoa as all the years came on I felt old anyway, babe
Yeah I always wanted to travel, oh, Europe and France
Watch the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace
Go on to Sweden, find out what their tanning secret is

Because we don’t have a studio recording to compare it to, it’s quite possible that this extended section is a semi-ad-libbed interlude a la “Sad Eyes” in “Backstreets.” It would explain the inconsistent rhyming scheme and occasional clumsy lyric (“Sleeping on the damn cold cement floor, but no place else to sleep”), as well as the seemingly stream-of-consciousness rambling.

You said you’ll do all them things you wanted to do sometime
Well there’s a young cowboy – I always wanted to be a cowboy – lives on the range
Maybe I’ll take a trip on down to Spain
Always wanted to be like Douglas Fairbanks Junior
Fighting all them pirates on the Spanish Main
With that fancy shirt, vest, my own clipper ship

Well maybe I’ll get myself a black leather jacket
And a big Harley Davidson motorcycle yeah
Just like Sonny Barger
Think I’ll have to get myself a sawed-off pool cue too, to meet the occasions

And when I’ve done all the things that I would like to do
Maybe I’ll take one last trip
Go off, up to never never land
Have tea with the Lost Boys, Tinkerbell, Peter Pan
You know I always wanted to learn how to fly
You know I always thought I, I could do it if, if I try, I’ve always thought about it
Oh but travellin’ ain’t no fun if you gotta travel alone
Sure do feel good to get that one

Yeah I’m gonna dream, oh yeah
I don’t wanna hear about my bills
How many men killed in Vietnam

And then–finally!–that riff we’ve been hearing periodically throughout returns and breaks wide open at 21:46:

Now it’s unmistakable: what we’ve been hearing threaded throughout the song is a very early version of what would someday become the instrumental track for “Kitty’s Back.” Bruce uses it to take us home, his lyrics transforming from the mundane to the romantic (with some very, um, strong vocals from Vini accompanying him):

Gonna take it one more time around

Well he gets up in the morning as the sun’s about to rise
and with his guitar singing he goes down upon the green hillside
He sings about a land he said he seen where there’s never any night
And sunlight soldiers dance and sing before your very eyes
Sing it to me!

(Well his father is the sun and his mother is the sky, yeah)
(And today he’s to be wed to the wind, he knows not to reason why)
For he is the mountain child
For he is the mountain child
Yeah, yeaaaah, yeah yeah yeah yeah

In his cloudy chariot he takes his brand new bride
On into the house of stone down upon the green hillside
There they stay for a year and a day, hands held side by side
They’ll conceive of a daughter who’ll be the rain to clean your dusty mind

And when the dew has fallen down upon the earthy home
They’ll set the sail on a clipper ship, never to return
On into the blood red horizon where the fire of love still burns
And the beauty of the perfect love will turn and turn and turn
And the beauty of the perfect love will turn and turn and turn
You know the beauty of the perfect love turn and turn and turn

He gets up in the morning as the sun’s about to rise
And with his guitar singing he go down upon the green hillside
Sings about a land he said he seen where there’s never any night
And sunlight soldiers dance and sing before your very eyes
And sunlight soldiers dance and sing before your very eyes
And sunlight soldiers dance dance dance before your very eyes

Na na na na na na… oh can’t you hear ’em singing
Na na na na na na… can’t you hear ’em singing
Na na na na na na… can’t you hear ’em singing
Na na na na na na… oh you hear ’em singing
Na na na na na na… oh yeaah
(Na na na na na…)

I’m a happy man, yes I am
I wanna bang yeah, make us feel so good

There are those who have argued that this section of the song is actually an altogether different one, named “Sunlight Soldiers” for its recurring metaphor. There’s certainly some merit to that argument–lyrically and tonally, there’s nothing very bluesy about the final minutes of the song.

But the recurring “Kitty” riff that unites the segments argues for consideration of it as a single song, and I tend to agree. And although the final section of the song has its own structure, you can clearly hear Bruce reaching for the same type of outtro that he would nail a few years latter in “Kitty’s Back.”

Listen to rhythm of the band, bring the rhythm from your head through your toes up into your hands
Listen to rhythm of the band, bring the rhythm from your head up your nose and down through your hands
Listen to rhythm of the band, bring the rhythm from your head to nose through your hair through your head
Listen to rhythm of the band, yeah whoa
Ok ready, oh stop!
Na na na na na…
See if you can do it by yourself now

Listen to rhythm of the band, bring the rhythm from your head through your toes on into your hands
Listen to rhythm of the band, bring the rhythm on down
We’re gonna come and take you for one more ride now
So get ready now
We’re gonna take you for one more ride
So fasten your seatbelts, ’cause we’re gonna fly, hey!

The Kitty riff returns with a vengeance as the band plays out and brings our epic journey to a close.

Whew!

What are we to make of “Garden State Parkway Blues” looking back? It’s mottled and disjointed, but lighthearted and ambitious at the same time. It’s also a fascinating glimpse into Bruce’s contemporary influences and future songwriting. For those (like me) who study the evolution of Bruce’s craft with fascination, “Garden State Parkway Blues” is an essential listen.

Garden State Parkway Blues
Never recorded or released
First performed: September 20, 1969 (Richmond, VA)
Last performed: October 17, 1970 (Long Branch, NJ)

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