Roll of the Dice: Darlington County

Roger Scott to Bruce Springsteen: “The River… was full of these sharply contrasting songs, these wild celebrations alongside these hopeless people.”

 

Bruce Springsteen to Roger Scott: “On The River, I’d have a song like this and a song like that because I didn’t know how to combine it. By the time I’d got to the Born in the U.S.A. album, I kinda combined those two things. Like ‘Darlington County…'”  (Hot Press, November 2, 1984)

Bruce might have been a bit disingenuous in that 1984 interview, because “Darlington County” dates back to the Darkness on the Edge of Town sessions in 1977. Although we can’t be sure the song hadn’t substantially changed in the intervening years (no recording of the Darkness version has ever escaped into the wild, if one even exists), it’s more likely that it took Bruce a while to grow comfortable with the idea of combining farce with fiction, telling a short story as a comedy rather than a drama.

“Darlington County” is quite the comedy, and its characters have quite the backstory. Wayne and Wilson are South Carolina delivery men on the run from the Highway Patrol after a roadside accident involving illegally transported live chickens while on the way to Wilson’s romantic rendezvous with Bobby Jean’s sister.

(If you’re scratching your head trying to figure out that last paragraph, you obviously haven’t listened to “Delivery Man,” Bruce’s 1983 unreleased prequel to “Darlington County.” Go do that now, and then come back.)

“Darlington County” picks up as the two boys cross the county line, determined to find new work and romance where the law won’t find them.

We can’t dive into the story, though, until we address a couple of elephants in the room.

By now, we’re used to Bruce wearing his influences on his sleeve–it’s not that hard on any given track to figure out who or what musically inspired it. But “Darlington County” may take the prize for the most obvious homage in his catalog–if Bruce had tipped his hat toward “Honky Tonk Women” any further, we’d be discussing a cover rather than an original.

So similar are the two songs’ introductions and backbeat (right down to the ever-present cowbell) that when Bruce plays “Darlington County” live, he often deliberately teases his audience with a few bars of the Rolling Stones’ 1969 classic (and sometimes even a few lines).

And then there’s the other aspect of “Darlington County” that needs to be called out: this is perhaps the loosest E Street Band performance on record.

Actually, that’s probably not fair–Max, Danny, Garry, and Roy are locked in throughout the entire track, and Clarence is as reliable as always during his solo. But as for Bruce and Steve, it’s a marvel they made it through the entire song without completely losing their composure. (“Darlington County” was recorded live on the second take.) They sure come close at times–I can’t help but be completely distracted during the last two minutes of the song just waiting for the train wreck that seems all but inevitable. We’ll come back to that, though.

Let’s pick up the story.

Driving in to Darlington County, me and Wayne on the Fourth of July
Driving in to Darlington County, looking for some work on the county line
We drove down from New York City
Where the girls are pretty but they just wanna know your name
Driving in to Darlington City, got a union connection with an uncle of Wayne’s
We drove eight hundred miles without seeing a cop
We got rock and roll music blasting off the T-top

Singing sha la la, sha la la la la
Sha la la la la la la

Wilson is what we call an “unreliable narrator.” We know from “Delivery Man” that they did not in fact drive in from New York City, but rather from just across the county line. But he and Wayne fancy themselves as Big City boys, because that’s what impresses the girls. We also know that Wayne and Wilson are quite the wild ones–that third line tells us all we need to know about their character.

And as for that wordless “sha la la” chorus, that’s just the setup for a joke that pays off in the next verse, when our two “heroes” attempt to pick up a couple of streetwalkers, waving around a wad of cash as if it were just a taste instead of what’s likely their entire holdings.

Hey little girl standing on the corner, today’s your lucky day for sure all right
Me and my buddy we’re from New York City, we got two hundred dollars we wanna rock all night
Girl you’re looking at two big spenders, well the world don’t know what me and Wayne might do
Our pas each own one of the World Trade Centers, for a kiss and a smile I’ll give mine all to you,
Come on baby take a seat on my fender, it’s a long night and tell me what else were you gonna do
Just me and you, we could…

Sha la la, sha la la la la
Sha la la la la la la

We know from “Delivery Man” where the inspiration for Wilson’s World Trade Center boast comes from, but it’s the euphemistic “sha la la” that earns the laugh–so much so that Bruce cracks himself up during Clarence’s solo.

In fact from this point forward, the train seems ever ready to run the rails, with Bruce struggling to maintain his composure, his lead vocals out of sync with Steve’s hilariously exaggerated backing vocals.

The final verse flashes forward past a week of truancy and debauchery. Wayne has burned his uncle’s bridge; Wilson appears to have made it through a week of work, but as he blows town on the weekend with his sweetheart-for-hire blowing beside him, he discovers Wayne in the process of being arrested by the highway patrol, presumably for the chicken incident.

Little girl sitting in the window, ain’t seen my buddy in seven days 
County man tells me the same thing, he don’t work and he don’t get paid
Little girl you’re so young and pretty, walk with me and you can have your way
And we’ll leave this Darlington City for a ride down that Dixie Highway

Driving out of Darlington County, my eyes seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
Driving out of Darlington County, seen Wayne handcuffed to the bumper of a state trooper’s Ford

Even without the prequel backstory, we know without Bruce telling us: Wilson doesn’t even slow down. He just keeps right on going.

There’s no moral in “Darlington County,” and there surely isn’t a message. In fact, if we didn’t know the lyrics dated back to the Darkness era, if we’d never heard the “Delivery Man” prequel, and if we hadn’t yet heard the River-esque arrangement, on first read we might suspect “Darlington County” to be a holdover from Bruce’s Nebraska collection of amoral character studies.

But the good-ol’-boys arrangement is so infectious that we somehow sense that Wayne and Wilson are more bark than bite, more buffoons than would-be tycoons.

Bruce seems to have realized that channeling the boys’ inner buffoonery was the key to “Darlington County” from the get-go, and perhaps that’s why he’s so self-consciously goofy on the studio track. I’ve spent way too much time listening intently to the song’s final minute, trying to pick out what Bruce is saying and singing underneath the music. (I swear he’s singing “we gonna die” at the 4:20 mark, though.)

But somehow the loose, ragged performance seems to suit the story rather than detract from it, and shtick would forever be mandatory when performing it. (Still, if anyone knows how to filter the track to expose Bruce’s vocals more clearly, please let me know.)

Surprisingly, though, when it came time to re-enact “Darlington County” during its first tour, Bruce chose E Street newbie Nils Lofgren as his partner in crime over character actor Clarence Clemons–likely because Nils’ tenor was much better suited for recreating Little Steven’s backing vocals, but I suspect Bruce also realized that an interracial small-time crime/buddy movie in the South was going to be a lot harder to play for laughs.

Over the years, Nils has become as inseparable from “Darlington County” as Wayne himself, always appearing at Bruce’s side during the mid-song instrumental break, even if some venues require him to hustle faster and further than others.

One of my favorite Bruce-and-Nils “Darlington County” performances, though, is the most obscure one: check out this acoustic performance from 1986. Danny Federici accompanies on accordion as well, but it’s clear that the song belongs to Bruce and Nils.

“Darlington County” became an instant and perennial favorite for fans and artist alike. Other than the thematically misfitting Tunnel of Love, Ghost of Tom Joad Tours, and Seeger Sessions Tour, it’s made appearances on every tour for the past 35 years.

Something tells me we’ll be celebrating the misadventures of Wayne and Wilson for a long time to come.

Bonus #1: Although it’s not nearly as obvious as “Hungry Heart,” the album version of “Darlington County” is artificially sped up from the original recording. Here’s the original take below; once you hear it, you’ll never be able to not notice the acceleration in the original again.

Bonus #2: Here’s Bruce working out the melody for “Darlington County” on his tape recorder at home, just because.

Darlington County
Recorded: May 13, 1982
Released: Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
First performed: June 8, 1984 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: August 24, 2023 (Foxborough, MA)

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