The story goes something like this:
In the summer of 1971, Bruce met a girl named Diane Lozito. Sparks flew, but Lozito was romantically involved with someone else at the time, a lifeguard Bruce knew named Billy Cahill. Billy had a bit of a wild edge to him, so Bruce dubbed him “Wild Billy.”
Cahill was so wild, in fact, that Bruce thought Lozito had to be a bit off herself to voluntarily involve herself with him–so he nicknamed her “Crazy Diane.”
One night that summer, Bruce, Wild Billy, Crazy Diane, Davy Hazlett (a temporary Steel Mill member who Bruce called “Hazy” (according to Hazlett)) and other friends and hangers-on escaped the summer heat at a nearby lake and while Wild Billy took a nocturnal swim, Bruce and Crazy Diane hooked up. Before long, Diane broke up with Wild Billy and took up with Bruce.
A year or so later, when Bruce completed his first album, Clive Davis (President of Columbia Records) felt the album didn’t have any songs with commercial potential and asked Bruce to write another track or two. Bruce went home and wrote “Blinded by the Light” and “Spirit in the Night,” the latter of which memorialized that first spark between Bruce and his girlfriend.
So the story goes. At least, according to Lozito in her interviews about it. To my knowledge, Bruce has never commented.
And I certainly don’t have any reason to doubt her.
But.
I can’t help but think there’s a bit more (and perhaps a bit less) to the story than the legend suggests.
I’m certainly not the first person to note the similarities between “Spirit in the Night” and the “Crazy Jane” series of poems by William Butler Yeats. I’ve seen scholarly papers that deeply dissect both works and their creators’ biographies to tease out a string of similarities between the two men and their work, but I think that goes too far as well. A 22-year old songwriter impatient to introduce the world to his music isn’t about to delve into literary research when asked to add a more radio-friendly song to his album.
Still: the surface similarities are unmistakable, and too startling for them to be entirely coincidental.
While Bruce wasn’t nearly as well-read at that point in his life as he is today, it’s certainly reasonable to assume he would have been introduced to Yeats in high school, and it’s easy to understand why Yeats’ style and sexual, mystical themes would have attracted Bruce’s interest.
Yeats wrote a series of seven poems about a woman named Crazy Jane, who has a series of encounters and conversations with The Bishop. Although reportedly based on a real-life sexually liberated woman Yeats encountered on the streets of Dublin, Crazy Jane seems to also serve as a thinly veiled mask for Yeats to express his own libertine views toward sexuality.
Here’s the most well-known of the series, Crazy Jane and the Bishop:
I met the Bishop on the road
And much said he and I.
`Those breasts are flat and fallen now
Those veins must soon be dry;
Live in a heavenly mansion,
Not in some foul sty.’
`Fair and foul are near of kin,
And fair needs foul,’ I cried.
‘My friends are gone, but that’s a truth
Nor grave nor bed denied,
Learned in bodily lowliness
And in the heart’s pride.
`A woman can be proud and stiff
When on love intent;
But Love has pitched his mansion in
The place of excrement;
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent.’
Through Crazy Jane, Yeats argues that age doesn’t require one to give up a sexual life, and one shouldn’t be ashamed for unabashedly embracing sex as an essential part of love even in old age.
Yeats is a bit direct about it (arguing that love resides in the place where excretion happens (Bruce would simply call it “cake”)), but to a young man of a poetic bent himself, I can easily see Bruce becoming fascinated with Crazy Jane.
So when Bruce decided to write a song about youthful nocturnal hedonism, I absolutely believe that centering the song around “Crazy Janey and her mission man” was a direct nod to Crazy Jane and the Bishop. And as for Wild Billy, I suspect that’s author W.B. Yates making a cameo appearance.
None of this discredits Lozito’s account, however; it’s easy enough for one song to accommodate two muses.
Enough backstory–let’s get to the song. Recorded after the rest of the album was completed, Bruce had to play the piano and bass himself, since Sancious and Tallent were unavailable. (Bruce brought in Howard Wheeler, a session musician, to provide additional piano later.) Notice that I didn’t mention the guitar–one of the more surprising things about the track that often escapes a first listen is that there’s no lead guitar to be found.
The fact that “Spirit in the Night” swings as much as it does is entirely due to Bruce… and to Clarence. Clarence makes his debut on this track and on “Blinded,” but it’s on “Spirit” where the forever-after importance of the Big Man in Bruce’s sound can be fully felt for the first time. Saxophonists typically get the spotlight for a stretch of seconds, not minutes; in “Spirit,” however, there’s no sax solo–instead, Clarence carries the entire riff throughout the song. And while Vini Lopez does a fine job on the drums (his loose style is perfectly suited for “Spirit”), it’s really his and Clarence’s hand-clapping that gives the song its winning insouciance.
Let’s take a listen.
“Spirit in the Night” attracts a lot of discussion among fans trying to dissect it, but it’s actually pretty direct, at least by early Springsteen standards. The setup couldn’t be simpler: Crazy Janey and the bishop–oops, I mean her mission man–are playing cards in the alley when a car pulls up with Wild Billy and G-Man.
(Note: W.B. Yates’ wife was named George, a masculine name. With regard to G-Man, make of that what you will. I err on the side of coincidence on that one, but with Bruce, you never know.)
Billy has a great idea–why don’t they all head up to the lake? It’s not far, and he’s got some wine. Heck, they can even pick up Davy and Joe and make a party out of it.
Crazy Janey and her mission man were back in the alley trading hands
‘Long came Wild Billy with his friend G-Man all duded up for Saturday night
Well, Billy slammed on his coaster brakes and said, “Anybody wanna go on up to Greasy Lake?
It’s about a mile down on the dark side of route eighty-eight, I got a bottle of rose so let’s try it
We’ll pick up Hazy Davy and Killer Joe and I’ll take you all out to where the gypsy angels go
They’re built like light
Ooh, and they dance like spirits in the night (all night)
In the night (all night)
Oh, you don’t know what they can do to you
Spirits in the night (all night)
Oh, in the night (all night)
Stand right up now and let it shoot through you
Did I say Billy brought wine with him? Maybe he brought something else as well:
Well now Wild Billy was a crazy cat and he shook some dust out of his coonskin cap
He said, “Trust some of this, it’ll show you where you’re at, or at least it’ll help you really feel it”
Yeah, there’s some, um, pixie dust in the mix, too. Regardless, the kids pile into the car and head lakeward, and by the time they arrive, Bruce (hey, where did he come from? He must be the mission man.) and Janey have hooked up in the backseat:
Well, by the time we made it up to Greasy Lake, I had my head out the window and Janey’s fingers were in the cake
I think I really dug her ’cause I was too loose to fake
I said, “I’m hurt,” she said, “Honey, let me heal it”
And we danced all night to a soul fairy band
And she kissed me just right like only a lonely angel can
She felt so nice, just as soft as a spirit in the night (all night)
In the night (all night)
Oh, Janey don’t know what she do to you
Like a spirit in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
Stand right up and I let her shoot through me
If there’s another literary influence at play besides Yates, it would have to be Shakespeare. With imagery of midnight revelers dancing to a “soul fairy band,” it’s a scene right out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As the night reaches toward the dawn, though, the revelers inevitably run out of steam:
Now the night was bright and the stars threw light on Billy and Davy
Dancing in the moonlight
They were down near the water in a stone mud fight
Killer Joe gone passed out on the lawn
And at this point, Bruce introduces a technique he’ll return to again and again over the years: a dramatic pause followed by spare instrumentation to highlight a time-out-of-time moment for his characters. When Janey tells her mission man that it’s time to go, they close their eyes and take one last silent moment before the “band” (such as it is) returns to take the song (and the characters) home.
Well now Hazy Davy got really hurt, he ran into the lake in just his socks and a shirt
Me and Crazy Janey was making love in the dirt, singing our birthday songs
Janey said it was time to go
So we closed our eyes and said goodbye to gypsy angel row, felt so right
Together we moved like spirits in the night (all night)
In the night (all night)
Oh, you don’t know what they can do to you
Them spirits in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
Oh, stand right up and let it shoot through you
“Spirit in the Night” may wear some of its influences on its sleeve, but there are a few hidden up it as well: In an early radio interview, Bruce admitted to nicking a line from The Band, most likely from “The Moon Struck One.”
Little John was stung by a snake over by the lake
And it looked like he’s really, really hurt, he was lying in the dirt
And Bruce once told Ed Sciaky that “for some reason I always imagined Joe Cocker doing ‘Spirit in the Night.’ When I wrote the song I had his kind of voice in mind, which is something I rarely do.”
Whatever the recipe, “Spirit in the Night” stands out from the rest of Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. Sure, “Blinded by the Light” has a similar lighter feel to “Spirit” compared to the rest of the somber album, but “Blinded” shares the rhyming dictionary overuse that characterizes much of Bruce’s early work. By contrast, “Spirit” is more restrained, letting the imagery paint the scene and allowing Clarence to carry the listener through it.
It also provides the first glimpse at what would eventually evolve into the E Street sound. At 572 performances to date, it comes in a very close second to “Growin’ Up” as the most frequently played Greetings song–and if you don’t count Springsteen on Broadway performances of “Growin’ Up,” “Spirit” runs away with the title altogether.
“Spirit in the Night” made its live debut mere weeks after its vinyl debut. Here’s the earliest known performance, from January 31, 1973.
Even in that earliest performance, we can hear Bruce reaching for the drama, milking the late-song pause for effect. Over the years, the song would grow in length and passion, and we are fortunate to have so many professionally filmed, officially released performances from different eras to trace its arc. From the earliest days in 1973…
…to the just-famous days following the release of Born to Run, where the band now known as E Street created ambiance with a dramatic introduction, and in the late song break… well, just watch.
From the Darkness Tour…
…to the Rising Tour (in an unusual acoustic performance, with an uncharacteristic brain fart):
…to the modern-day Wrecking Ball and High Hopes era, where “Spirit in the Night” became a full-on production number with an introduction that sometimes eclipsed the song itself.
Other than its notable absence during the Tunnel of Love Tour, “Spirit in the Night” has never missed a Springsteen tour, even making cameo acoustic appearances during the 1992-93 Tour…
…the Ghost of Tom Joad era (in an almost-E Street Band reunion):
…and the Devils & Dust Tour:
Even now, with a tour nowhere on the horizon, catch Bruce at a surprise appearance in Asbury Park, and you might be lucky enough to feel the spirit.
Although the 1973 single went nowhere chart-wise, “Spirit in the Night” remains one of Bruce Springsteen’s most iconic songs, a fan-favorite in every era.
Regardless of whether it was inspired by The Bard, The Band, the poet, or the girlfriend, its magic belongs to The Boss.
Spirit in the Night
Recorded: September 11, 1972 – October 26, 1972
Released: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973), The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003)
First performed: January 31, 1973 (New York City, NY)
Last performed: September 3, 2023 (East Rutherford, NJ)
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I believe the lake in the song is Lake Carasaljo is the Greasy Lake in the song, which indeed is about mile from the parkway down route 88. At the time the song was written it was indeed on the dark side of 88. As the Brick side of 88 was white pineys and the the Lakewood side of 88 was African Americans. (Now it is orthodox jewish people). That’s how I have always understood the geography of the song.
Playing cards, really? That’s what he meant by “trading hands”? The Bishop and I aren’t so sure. 🤔