It takes a lot of darkness to out-dark Darkness on the Edge of Town, but “Breakaway” manages to do it.
“Breakaway” is easily the bleakest song to come out of the Darkness sessions and is surely a contender for the title across Bruce’s entire catalog.
And yet, it’s paired with such a gorgeous backing track that unless we fight to pay attention to the lyrics, we probably feel more uplifted than depressed.
That’s quite the feat. Let’s take a listen and see how Bruce pulls it off.
There’s a lot going on here. We’ll get to the lyrics in a moment, but let’s start with the homages. The most obvious one is Bruce’s wink at Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over.” Not only does Bruce lift the persistent drum riff wholesale, he also borrows Roy’s melodic phrasing at times.
Listen to Roy’s delivery of “Your baby won’t be near you any more” in the audio below, and compare it with Bruce’s “now the promises and the lies, they demand it” in “Breakaway.”
And then of course, there’s the thematic similarity between the two songs–they’re both completely bereft of any hope or light.
There’s another “Breakaway” callback that goes back even further than Orbison’s classic breakup song: that “Ronde-Ronde” chorus, lifted from The Shirelles’ first single, “I Met Him on a Sunday (Ronde-Ronde).”
What made Bruce choose that curious chorus tribute? I honestly don’t know. Unlike “It’s Over,” there’s no thematic or subject matter similarity between “I Met Him on a Sunday (Ronde-Ronde)” and “Breakaway.”
Perhaps Bruce was just reaching for that classic, lush sixties ballad sound and was looking for a nonsense chorus typical of the girl group years. Regardless, the choice is striking, almost distracting. It pulls our attention from the verses to the chorus–and maybe that’s intentional.
Because boy, those verses.
Let’s just establish up front that nothing actually happens in “Breakway.” There’s no story arc, no love triangles, no moral dilemmas, nothing–just three vignettes.
A gambler gets in too deep and loses everything; a bartender turns a trick in a parking lot; somebody dies out on the street.
That’s the song.
Sonny abandoned his car last night
Had a meeting on the docks with a light blue Monterrey
To breakaway
Sonny was playing all his cards last night
In a hotel room he dealt his life away
To breakaway
Perhaps Sonny got off lucky by signing away his car as a gambling loss, but it sure seems likely (given the rest of the song) that the meeting on the docks was a more sinister one–unable to pay his debts, Sonny is thrown off the pier and drowned.
Hoping to break away from whatever metaphorical chains bound him, he ended up breaking away from life itself.
(Sonny will return in “Racing in the Street.”)
Now the promises and the lies they demand it
Let the hearts that have been broken stand as the price you pay
To breakaway, oh, breakaway, oh Ronde, Ronde, Ronde, Ronde Ray
To breakaway
Yes, that’s the chorus for “Badlands” you spotted there. Although Bruce was working on “Badlands” at the same time he recorded “Breakaway,” that iconic line (“let the broken hearts stand as the price you’ve gotta pay”) wouldn’t migrate to “Badlands” until several months later. Bruce isn’t one to let a great line go to waste.
Janie slipped from behind the bar last night
Cashed out and walked onto streets rainy and grey
To breakaway
Janie slid into a car last night
In a parking lot she gave her soul away
To breakaway
Whatever ambiguity we find in Sonny’s vignette, there’s a lot less in Janie’s. Dissatisfied with her lot, she turns to sex as a means to escape it. Her fate may not be as final as Sonny’s, but Bruce implies that she dies a death of a different kind.
(Don’t lose heart: Janie will return someday, too.)
We must also take notice here of what may be the most twisted lyrical/musical juxtaposition in Bruce’s catalog: the “sha la la” backing vocals deliberately meant to evoke the innocence of the girl group era. This is a modern touch, not present in the original 1977 recording; when polishing the song for The Promise in 2010, Bruce called on Patti, Soozie, and the Alliance Singers to provide those “sha la las.”
We also hear the E Street Horn, a modern addition that unfortunately sounds exactly like the overlay it is, to add even more verdancy.
Finally, there’s Bobby, who we meet in his final moments.
Bobby lay ‘neath a sheet of stars last night
His back on blacktop still warm from the heat of the day
From breakaway
Bobby went down hard last night
Saw a shooting star as the evening light slipped away
From breakaway
We have no idea what led to Bobby’s demise (although the fact that he “went down hard” implies some kind of violence), but it’s clear from the “sheet of stars” metaphor that he’s gone, gone, gone. But in his final moments, he sees a shooting star–a rare and fleeting glimpse of beauty that momentarily breaks through and ultimately away.
If there’s a message to be found at all in “Breakaway,” it’s that no matter how bleak your life may seem, it can always get worse.
And if you turn to the wrong cure, you may find it more final than the disease.
Breakaway
Recorded: June 1, 1977 (core track)
Released: The Promise (2010)
Never performed
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