Backstreets
In Backstreets we see a darker side of Springsteen's work. The narrator describes a desparate relationship with Terry, an apparent lover who has since deserted him. Obviously their relationship seems doomed from the start. References to drug usage are intertwined with descriptions of their desparate love filled with defeat and hiding. There's no searching going on here. There's no indication that there is a way out. This sure ain't Thunder Road. There's no "magic in the night" in this relationship. Is this were you end up if you don't find a way out?
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One soft infested summer
Me and Terry became friends
Trying in vain to breathe the fire we was born in
Catching rides to the outskirts
Tying faith between our teeth
Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house
Getting wasted in the heat
Hiding on the backstreets,
Hiding on the backstreets
With a love so hard and filled with defeat
Running for our lives at night on them backstreets
Slow dancing in the dark
On the beach at Stockton's Wing
Where desperate lovers park
We sat with the last of the Duke Street Kings
Huddled in our cars Waitin' for the bells that ring
In the deep heart of the night
To set us loose from everything
To go running on the backstreets,
Running on the backstreets
Terry, we swore we'd live forever
We'd take it on them backstreets together
Endless juke joints and Valentino drag
Where dancers scraped the tears
Up off the street dressed down in rags
Running into the darkness
Some hurt bad some really dying
At night sometimes it seemed
You could hear the whole damn city crying
Blame it on the lies that killed us
Blame it on the truth that ran us down
You can blame it all on me Terry
It don't matter to me now
When the breakdown hit at midnight
There was nothing left to say
But I hated him and I hated you
When you went away
Laying here in the dark
You're like an angel on my chest
Just another tramp of hearts
Crying tears of faithlessness
Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see
Trying to learn how to walk like the heroes
We thought we had to be
And after all this time
To find we're just like all the rest
Stranded in the park and forced to confess
To hiding on the backstreets,
Hiding on the backstreets
We swore forever friends
On the backstreets until the end
Hiding on the backstreets,
Hiding on the backstreets
