I’m not entirely sure what to make of “A Night with the Jersey Devil.”
I’m not convinced Bruce knows what to make of it either.
A Night with the Jersey Devil” first appeared as a downloadable audio and streaming video on Bruce’s web site on Halloween night 2008. Released with no fanfare other than a handwritten note of introduction, it nevertheless had the distinction of serving as the lead single for Bruce’s as yet unannounced upcoming album, Working on a Dream. Or did it?
When the album was first announced, Bruce’s Halloween surprise was listed as a bonus track, similar to “The Wrestler.” But by the time the album was released, “A Night with the Jersey Devil” was nowhere to be seen. Why did Bruce drop it? As far as I know, no one’s ever asked him, and he’s never commented.
But when fans who ordered the deluxe edition of the album played the bonus DVD that came with it, they quickly discovered that the Thom Zimny-directed video for “A Night with the Jersey Devil” was included.
Bruce apparently wasn’t satisfied with that limited exposure, though: in April 2009, he released the song as the B-side to the single for “What Love Can Do.”
So let’s stop and tally: this song that Bruce couldn’t commit to releasing on an album nevertheless received an official release on Bruce’s web site, his Youtube channel, a DVD, and a single. That’s a lot of weight to put behind an outtake–which might make sense if it was a great song. But “A Night with the Jersey Devil” is a bit… odd.
It starts out as a creepy retelling of a local myth, almost a Halloween version of “Nebraska.” Midway through, we suspect something else is at play, and by the end, we realize that Bruce has pulled a fast one on us. “A Night with the Jersey Devil” is ultimately a good-natured prank–one stop short of a novelty song, and that’s probably what prompted its album revocation at the last minute.
Let’s take a listen and go inside the song, but let’s start with a quick history lesson. When I was a kid, I used to go canoeing with my friends in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. We all knew the story of the Jersey Devil, and the two-minute History Channel clip below sums it up pretty well. Give it a watch, and then we’ll move on.
Now that we’re versed in the history of the Jersey Devil, we can see that the first half of the song is a colorful but essentially traditional first-person retelling of the myth surrounding the thirteenth child of Mother Leeds. In fact, the video even starts with a brief textual recap, before a coyote’s howl heralds the emergence of an oddly dispassionate (for now) Bruce Springsteen from the murky depths.
Bruce seems lost in thought (and a really poor lip-syncher) as he tells his tale:
Hear me now!
I was born 13th child, ‘neath the 13th moon
Spit out hungry and born anew
Daddy drag me to the river, tie me in rocks
Throw me in where it’s deep and wide
I go down, I don’t die
Hole in the river bottom, I crawl through
Come back kill six brothers and sisters, kill Papa too
Sway down Mama, sway down low
They gonna know me wherever I go
Into my bed with her kerosene my mama creep
Set my flesh to burning, whilst I sleep
I burn, burn, burn, till my soul burn black
Black rains fall, I come back, I come back
Creepy, yes. But basically a first-person Jersey Devil origin story with a Muddy Waters blues riff and the bullet microphone that Bruce grew so fond of during the Devils & Dust Tour (almost certainly a coincidence, but who knows).
But then the song takes a sudden turn: Bruce’s voice is sinister now (and his lip-synching much better); his eyes lock onto ours as if he’s finally registered our presence. He’s done retelling history–now he’s making a promise directly to us:
Get down Mama, get down low
They gonna know me wherever I go
16 witches cast 16 spells
Make me guitar outta skin and human skull
Sing you a song like the wind in the sandy loam
Bring you baby out your happy home
And this is where we realize that something strange has happened, because the myth of the Jersey Devil has just merged with the legend of Bruce Springsteen. They’re now one and the same. Fiendish demon or rock star–is there a difference? Perhaps not in the mind of the singer, he seems to be saying. At least not tonight.
Ram’s head, forked tail, clove hoof, love’s my trail
I sup on your body, sip on your blood like wine
Out world theirs, this world mine
So kiss me baby till it hurts
God lost in heaven, we lost on earth
Sway down Mama, sway down low
They gonna know me wherever I go
Wherever I go, wherever I go
And now comes the punchline: Bruce seamlessly segues into the first verse and chorus from Gene Vincent’s 1958 single, “Baby Blue,” a song with basically the same riff but lyrically the polar opposite of “A Night With the Jersey Devil.” (So much of the song is used, in fact, that Bruce credits Gene Vincent and Robert Jones as his co-songwriters.)
This is where we realize that everything that came before is a would be Romeo’s inner monologue. “Baby Blue” reveals to us that the singer is a lovestruck musician who sees himself as a much more sinister ladies’ man than anyone else does. Perhaps the title of the song should have given it away from the beginning–it’s just a typical night with a would-be Jersey Devil.
And just in case we don’t get the joke, Bruce windmills on air guitar while his stick figure drawing of a devilish guitar player closes out the song.
Pretty clever, all in all, but it’s hard to imagine an album that it would fit on–or a setlist, for that matter. On Halloween night 2012, Bruce opened his show in Rochester with his one and only performance to date of “A Night with the Jersey Devil.” Maybe it played better to those who were there, but watching it from a distance, it seems more a curiosity than anything else. (It would have been cool if he had played a full “Baby Blue,” though.)
A Night With the Jersey Devil
Recorded: 2007-2008
Released: Digital Download (2008), What Love Can Do (b-side, 2009)
First performed: October 31, 2012 (Rochester, NY)
Last performed: October 31, 2012 (Rochester, NY)
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