In the pantheon of Springsteen songs, “Light of Day” is a song unlike any other. Which is saying a lot for a song that’s pretty much a Springsteen stereotype.
Stay close to me, because we’re about to go off-road.
Like many other ones that got away, we were first introduced to Bruce’s “Light of Day” when it was covered in 1987 by a Cleveland band called The Barbusters, which featured an all-star line-up that included Joan Jett, Michael J. Fox, and Spinal Tap’s Michael McKean.
Okay, so that was actually a movie.
But after the movie debuted, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts covered it for real. Except they released it under the name… The Barbusters.
The fake fake Barbusters (not to be confused with the real fake Barbusters) scored a modest hit with their version, peaking at #33 on the Hot 100 chart.
Light of Day the movie got a fair-to-middling reception, but “Light of Day” the song became a favorite among Joan Jett’s fans and a mainstay of her concert setlists.
But all along the way, Bruce was playing it himself. He debuted it shortly after the movie was released, at The Stone Pony with The E Street Band and Cats on a Smooth Surface. Here’s that first performance, from April 12, 1987:
Bruce played it a few times at the bar that summer, and then the following year, it took the place of “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) ” as Bruce’s steady main set-closer. It held that position from 1988 all the way through the Reunion Tour (taking time off during Bruce’s solo acoustic tour).
Let’s be honest, though: the song’s surprising staying power is more due to it’s hard-rocking guitar riffs and pounding percussion more than for incisive lyrics.
The story itself (such as it is) is simply the desperate drive of a newly unemployed young man eager to get laid, racing to Galveston, Texas, where his brother works and assures him that the girls are pretty hot.
Well I’ve been out of the woods for six days and nights now
Well I’m a little hot wired, but I’m feeling alright
I got some money in my pocket and a long lean ride
I got to make it down to Galveston by Saturday night, now
Been driving five hundred miles, got five hundred to go, yeah
I got rock and roll music on the radio
I got a brother on a rig just off the gulf coast
He says the girls down there, well they’re really the most, man
Our hero has had a bad run of luck lately, but he’s optimistic about the future–or about Saturday night, at least. He’s not even 100% sure whether his brother was serious about the girls, but he doesn’t care–at this point, it’s the only thing he has to look forward to:
Well I got thrown out of work on the Kokomo
Don’t ask me what I’m doing, I don’t know
I hope he wasn’t joking when he wrote me that letter
Things can’t get any worse, they got to get better
Well I’m a little down under, but I’m feeling O.K.
I got a little lost along the way
I’m just around the corner to the light of day
(Note: there several Kokomos in the U.S., but I did the math, and the only one that appears to be 1,000 miles away (or even close to it) is in Indiana. You’re welcome.)
And as time, passed the song grew in length and power. Almost immediately, Bruce discovered that in addition to serving as a great showcase for band introductions, the structure of “Light of Day” also lent itself to mashups and vamping.
In 1992, Bruce gave his new touring band a chance to stretch themselves and show off, and the song began to take on a life of its own. Their barnburner of a performance on MTV convinced Bruce to include it on his awkwardly titled In Concert/MTV Plugged album (the first and only official release of the song), and the world was re-introduced to a song most people didn’t even know he wrote. Not only that, “Light of Day” also served as the introduction to a verbal vamp that would continue to grow in length, passion, sincerity and silliness until it exploded into a mission statement on the Reunion Tour.
It remains a mystery to me how that performance of “Light of Day” could have been omitted from the official Live in New York City album, but it is indeed one of the ironies of the song: the set-closer for two E Street Band tours (three if you include the majority of the American High Hopes Tour) has never had a studio or an E Street Band release.
That’s especially surprising considering the band actually did record the song in the studio, on May 25, 1983, during the Born in the U.S.A. sessions. What happened next is tangled, so follow along:
Film auteur Paul Schrader wrote a movie screenplay in 1981 called Born in the U.S.A. and asked Bruce to write a song for it. Bruce declined, but something about the title of the screenplay obviously stuck with him–and inspired him to transform his work-in-progress song “Vietnam” into what we came to know as the title track for his most successful album.
Meanwhile, Schrader hadn’t actually got around to making his movie. When he was ready to do so in 1985, his original title of “Born in the U.S.A.” was no longer available due to the mega-blockbuster status of the song he inspired. Bruce must have felt a little guilty about that, so he offered Schrader an outtake that didn’t make the album: “Just Around the Corner to the Light of Day.” Schrader dug it, accepted it, and changed and shortened the title of the movie to match the song (Bruce shortened the song title as well), bringing us full circle.
So that’s the story of “Light of Day,” the never-released outtake that’s rocked the house for three decades.
May it always be just around the corner.
Update 11/17/19: I recently saw Bruce play “Light of Day” almost literally just around the corner from where he grew up. On September 28, 2019, Bruce made a surprise appearance at the preview party for an exhibit at the Monmouth County Historical Museum devoted to his early life. Here’s that performance (with Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers), along with hope for many more.
Update 10/29/21: If Joe’s band seemed particularly well-suited for the challenge in the clip above, that’s because they have plenty of practice with “Light of Day.” It appears frequently when Bruce and Joe perform together, going all the way back to their 1995 “October Assault” tour in support of American Babylon. In honor of that album’s new 25th anniversary re-issue (released today!), here’s an absolutely smoking version of “Light of Day” from the bonus disc that accompanies the album.
Light of Day
Recorded: September 22, 1992 (live performance)
Released: In Concert: MTV xxPlugged (1993)
First performed: April 12, 1987 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: January 18, 2020 (Asbury Park, NJ)
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