“Car Wash” is far from the only song Bruce has written from a female first-person perspective (see “Devil’s Arcade,” “Paradise,” and “My Lover Man” for examples), but it may be the earliest, and it’s certainly the most overt: Bruce wastes no time introducing us to our heroine by name (Catherine) and drawing us into her world.
In point of fact, “Car Wash” wasn’t even called “Car Wash” until Bruce rescued the track from his vault for his 1998 Tracks box set project. Until then, from its original recording date fifteen years earlier, the song was called “Small Town Girl,” which clues us in to not placing too much importance or symbolism on her place of employment.
The track itself is a fun one, a honky-tonk arrangement that would make for a fine set list companion to “Darlington County.” (The similarity of the two tracks may be one reason why Bruce chose to leave “Small Town Girl” off of Born in the U.S.A.)
“Small Town Girl” wasn’t the only song to come out of those recording sessions to feature a car wash as a prominent locale–“Downbound Train” did so as well. But whereas “Downbound Train” uses the car wash as ironic metaphor, there’s barely a lick of symbolism, metaphor, or imagery to be found in “Car Wash.”
“Car Wash” is about the difficulty of hanging on to your dreams in the face of a stark reality that seems to defy them from ever being realized. In the song’s sole poetic touch, Catherine refers to her job at the car wash as “doing time,” a deliberate prison reference.
Well my name is Catherine LeFevre
Work at the Astrowash on Sunset and Vine
I drop my kids at school in the morning
And I pick ’em up at Mary’s just ‘fore suppertime
Well I work down at the car wash
For a dollar and a dime
And mister, I hate my boss
It’s at the car wash I’m doing my time
Bruce subtly extends the comparison by likening the endless stream of cars to a chain gang. (Max even supplies a swinging sledgehammer beat to drive the point home.) Catherine doesn’t know or care who the cars belong to, she just washes them down and gets closer to collecting her $1.10 an hour.
Pick up my water bottle and my towel, sir
And I take ’em one by one
From Mercedes to VWs
I do ’em all and I don’t favor none
(Gotta take a moment to admire that third line above–“From Mercedes to VWs” is a clever metrical rhyme.)
Still, there’s a beating heart in this song, and we find it in the last verse. Despite the endless monotony of her days, she dreams of her big break, however unlikely that might be.
Well someday I’ll sing in a night club
I’ll get a million-dollar break
A handsome man will come here with a contract in his hand
And say “Catherine, this has all been some mistake”
There’s something about the over-the-top fantasy that suggests that Catherine knows full well her handsome A&R man isn’t going to come and take her away, but that doesn’t matter–the fantasy is enough to make the days bearable.
Maybe that’s why the E Street Band ends the song on a note of triumph, even as Catherine returns to her daily drudgery.
Well I work down at the car wash
For a dollar and a dime
Well mister, I hate my boss
It’s at the car wash I’m doing my time
It’s a genuine surprise to me that Bruce has only ever played “Car Wash” once, early in the Reunion Tour, in Leipzig, Germany. As I suggested above, listen to it back-to-back with “Darlington County,” and you’ll see how compatible the songs are if Bruce wanted to switch up his shows but still keep a honky-tonk rocker in the set list.
But one lone performance is all we’ve been given, so we’re fortunate that it was at least captured on video. The video quality is shaky for the first minute or so (it was 1999 after all), but it’s watchable and fun: Bruce draws out the song (he’d almost have to, since it’s only two minutes long on the record) with a great sax solo from Clarence.
“Car Wash” remains unplayed since that Leipzig 1999 show–after two decades, I think it’s high time for Bruce to give it at least one more outing.
Let’s hope for it on the next E Street Band tour!
Car Wash
Recorded: May 31, 1983
Released: Tracks (1998)
First performed: June 13, 1999 (Leipzig, Germany)
Last performed: June 13, 1999 (Leipzig, Germany)
Looking for your favorite Bruce song? Check our full index. New entries every week!
