“‘The Wanderer’ is really a sad song. A lot of guys don’t understand that. Bruce Springsteen was the only guy who accurately expressed what that song was about. It’s “I roam from town to town and go through life without a care, I’m as happy as a clown with my two fists of iron, but I’m going nowhere.” In the Fifties, you didn’t get that dark. It sounds like a lot of fun but it’s about going nowhere.” — Dion DiMucci
Dion’s “The Wanderer” was an immediate hit upon its release in late 1961, peaking just one spot shy of the top of U.S. charts, #10 in the U.K., and at #1 in Australia.
Dion has referred to “The Wanderer” as “Black music filtered through an Italian neighborhood that comes out with an attitude,” so it’s no wonder that Bruce would eventually gravitate to it.
Still, while Bruce has performed the song on stage several times over the years, it took him until 2009 to do so with the E Street Band.
Bruce’s first run at the song was way back in 1982, during one of his “open secret” Stone Pony gigs with Cats on a Smooth Surface.
The next time Bruce played “The Wanderer,” it was with such a stellar assemblage of talent that the camera doesn’t even register his presence. (He’s there, though, off to the far left, providing backing to the original artist himself and an all-star Hall of Fame jam band in January 1989.
In the mid-nineties, Bruce played the song with Dion once again, but this time both men were guests of Joe Grushecky during Joe’s local appearances (one in Long Branch in 1994, the other in New York City the following year).
It took a request sign to finally get Bruce to play the song with the E Street Band–almost ten years ago in Des Moines, Iowa. It took them a minute to work it out, but once they did… let’s just say it was worth the wait.
The Wanderer
First performed: July 25, 1982 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: September 21, 2009 (Des Moines, IA)
