It’s always fun (for me, at least) when the dice turn up a mini-theme.
For the second time this week, we’re examining an officially released song that shares a whole lot of DNA with another released song. The other day, we looked at lyrical twins “Be True” and “Mary Lou;” today, we take a look at “Come On (Let’s Go Tonight),” the musical twin of “Factory.”
If Bruce hadn’t released it on The Promise in 2010, I’d probably be covering “Come On (Let’s Go Tonight)” as an early draft of “Factory” instead of as a song in its own right.
To hardcore Springsteen fans, it’s difficult to listen to “Come On (Let’s Go Tonight)” and hear anything other than a hodgepodge of lyrics that would eventually find their way to other more well-known songs.
And yet, if we can pretend that we’ve never listened to “Factory,” “Out in the Street,” and “Johnny Bye Bye” before, there’s a somber reflection on life and death waiting to be discovered here.
“Come On (Let’s Go Tonight)” was one of the very first songs recorded for Darkness on the Edge of Town. In fact, a first cut was recorded on the very first day of recording sessions. Bruce worked on it throughout the early days of the summer of ’77, and one of those early July recordings escaped into the wild as a bootleg.
In the clip above, we can clearly hear that this is a song where the music preceded the lyrics–melodically, “Come On (Let’s Go Tonight)”/”Factory” was fully formed from the beginning (even if it lacks the gorgeous David Lindley violin overdub that was added later).
Lyrically, though, this is definitely an early draft. There’s a lot of bluffing going on, but there’s at least one gem of a line that Bruce ultimately discarded but which truly deserved to be adopted elsewhere:
Everybody wants heaven, but nobody wants to die.”
Man, that’s a great line.
By autumn, Bruce would evolve his lyrics to focus on his father, and “Come On (Let’s Go Tonight)” morphed into “The Factory Song” and finally “Factory.” During the summer, though, it remained a song focused on the brevity of life and the opportunity cost of living (which is actually not that far removed from what “Factory” is about).
Put on your black dress baby, and put your hair up right
There’s a party way down in Factory Town tonight
I’ll be going down there if you need a ride
Come on, come on, let’s go tonight
Let’s acknowledge the obvious: the first couplet eventually made it to “Out in the Street,” and the second one to “Johnny Bye Bye.” But taken on its own, we have an introductory verse that sets the scene: there’s a “party” going down, but the black dress implies that “party ” is a euphemism. We’re about to find out what for.
How many men fail, their dreams denied
They walk through these streets with death in their eyes
Now the man on the radio says “Elvis Presley died”
Come on, come on, let’s go tonight
As with “Johnny Bye Bye,” our song is set on the night that Elvis died. That was an event that hit Bruce hard, both because of the loss of an idol and the reinforcement of a lesson: success doesn’t necessarily breed contentment.
This middle verse is the crux of the song, and it’s a haunting one. Until this point in his career, Bruce was famously and obsessively focused on his craft and his success. He knew he was in a business where few made it big, and he knew what blue-collar fate awaited him if a musical career didn’t pan out.
“Factory” eventually became a song about the cost of surrendering your dreams to the monotony that comes with compromise, with Bruce’s father as the point-of-view character. The early draft that is “Come On (Let’s Go Tonight),” however,” reveals that Bruce may have been projecting with “Factory.” It’s clear from this early version that Bruce was intensely aware how tenuous success could be.
And yet like the best of Bruce’s songs, “Come On (Let’s Go Tonight)” operates on other levels as well: if Elvis’ death hit the songwriter existentially, Bruce brought his nameless mourners and celebrants along for the ride. These men and women had long ago given up their dreams and accepted “ordinary” jobs, but they were able to escape vicariously through popular music.
But then the music died, and with it went the escapism. If even Elvis could be haunted by demons, what hope did common folk have?
Well now some came to witness, now some came to weep
Drawn by death’s strange glory, they stood in the street
Drawn together forever in the promise of an endless sleep
Come on, come on, let’s go tonight
There’s something about death that reminds us of life. We gather, in part to remember the departed, but in part to remind ourselves that we are still here. There is indeed a strange glory in death–as Bruce wrote earlier, everybody wants heaven, but nobody wants to die. We miss the fallen, but celebrate their escape to the afterlife.
That penultimate line stays with us: drawn together forever in the promise of an endless sleep.
It’s not that our mourners are suicidal; it’s that the emptiness of an unfulfilling life can make the idea of an endless sleep seem like a great relief. But before we have a chance to ponder that notion, Bruce takes us into the final chorus–and we realize that far from a meaningless refrain, “come on, come on, let’s go tonight” is a reminder to keep going.
Keep moving forward, even if right now there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to doing so.
This is dark stuff, to be sure. But so is “Factory,” and most of Darkness on the Edge of Town. A little goes a long way. (Sorry, all you Darkness lovers–it’s my least favorite Springsteen album.)
So yes, “Come On (Let’s Go Tonight)” is often dismissed as a work-in-progress “Factory,” but I’d argue that it’s a more mature and sophisticated composition than the version that made it onto Darkness on the Edge of Town.
Still, “Factory” remains the better-known song, and it would probably only confuse casual fans if Bruce were to play the earlier song in concert. To date, he’s only done so once, at his private Asbury Park carousel webcast/video shoot in 2010, of which no recording circulates.
“Come On (Let’s Go Tonight)” is likely to remain a deep cut obscurity, deserving of more consideration than it receives.
Come On (Let’s Go Tonight)
Recorded: Late 1977
Released: The Promise (2010)
First performed: December 7, 2010 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: December 7, 2010 (Asbury Park, NJ)
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