“I didn’t want to be pegged as a revivalist, so I was hesitant to wear my influences too clearly on my sleeve at the moment.” — Bruce Springsteen to Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, November 25, 2010
Who can blame him?
Bruce had already featured the Spector-esque “Born to Run” and the Bo Diddley homage “She’s the One” on his previous record.
Releasing “Outside Looking In” on his follow-up almost certainly would have invited a Buddy Holly comparison. When it comes to wearing one’s influence on one’s sleeve, “Outside Looking In” is the equivalent of a “Peggy Sue” tattoo.
It’s more than just Max Weinberg’s rumbling percussion; even the chord progression of Bruce’s 1977 Darkness on the Edge of Town outtake is modeled after Buddy Holly’s 1957 classic. It’s not much of a stretch to argue that “Outside Looking In” is basically built on Peggy Sue’s chassis.
The irony of “Outside Looking In,” however, is that content-wise it’s the inverse of “Peggy Sue.”
“Peggy Sue” is a doe-eyed, devotional mash note of a song; “Outside Looking In”… well, let’s just say the narrator’s girl left him feeling a different kind of blue.
It’s all over now, the things we had
I ain’t sorry, girl, I just feel mad
You walk real pretty and you talk real fine
But night after night babe I’m on the line
My life’s the same story, again and again
I’m on the outside looking in
Well every day just brings the same
You go out looking for some strange new games
Pretty soon them games ain’t fun anymore
And it’s something else that you’re looking for
You’ve got all the answers, you and your friends
And I’m on the outside looking in
Now you’ve got the pretty things you want
The sins of the angels baby they will haunt
Those pretty eyes that they all adore
But baby not me, not anymore
I do what I want to,
I’ll be what I am
I’m on the outside looking in
Now if you’re a romantic, feel free to interpret Bruce’s lyrics as giving up on an emotionally distant girl who refuses to let her guard down. It’s certainly possible to read the song that way.
But to me, both the lyrics and vocals of “Outside Looking In” portray a sexually frustrated player who feels strung along and has lost all patience.
Both interpretations might be true.
The only thing that’s crystal clear is that our narrator has had enough of trying to make this relationship work. He’s walking away from it with his head held high, even though he suspects he’s the one who’s been played.
(An earlier take of the song included a verse that makes the narrator appear a bit vulnerable, but it also made him appear a bit of a victim. Bruce wisely decided to jettison it from the final version.)
Hey, you may believe it ain’t real
I don’t doubt the way I feel
You walk real pretty and you talk real sweet
Well baby I was born in the driving seat
My life’s the same story, again and again
I’m on the outside looking in
“Outside Looking In” is a clever twist on a rock and roll classic, but it’s one that many listeners wouldn’t recognize beneath its familiar veneer.
Bruce was wise to leave it off of Darkness but equally wise to dust it off three decades later for The Promise, his 2010 influence-wearing sleeve of an album.
Outside Looking In
Recorded: September 27, 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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The thing I find interesting about these lyrics is that the song only seems to be partly about this failed relationship; what’s lurking behind it is a general sense of alienation, of always being outside of everything, either by nature or by choice. “You’ve got all the answers, you and your friends, and I’m on the outside looking in,” sounds to me like the bitterness of someone who has never quite fit in or felt normal, resenting people who seem to move through the world with ease and confidence.
It reminds me, in a way, of what he does in “Wages of Sin” – though of course that’s a much heavier song – where it goes from “I’m being made to feel guilty in this relationship” to “actually, I’ve felt guilty all my life and I don’t know why.”