In 1973, Springsteen released his first two albums, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, neither of which earned him a large audience. He changed his style and reached worldwide popularity with Born to Run in 1975. It was followed by Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978) and The River (1980), which topped the US Billboard 200 chart. After the solo recording, Nebraska (1982), he reunited with the E Street Band for Born in the U.S.A. (1984), his most commercially successful album and one of the best-selling albums of all time. Seven of its singles reached the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100, including the title track. Springsteen recorded his next three albums, Tunnel of Love (1987), Human Touch (1992), and Lucky Town (1992) using mostly session musicians. He reassembled the E Street Band for 1995's Greatest Hits, then recorded the sparse acoustic The Ghost of Tom Joad, followed by the EP Blood Brothers (1996), his last release of the decade.
Springsteen dedicated his 2002 album The Rising to the victims of the September 11 attacks. He released two more folk albums, Devils & Dust (2005) and We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006), followed by two more albums with the E Street Band: Magic (2007) and Working on a Dream (2009). The next two, Wrecking Ball (2012) and High Hopes (2014), topped album charts worldwide. His latest releases include the solo Western Stars (2019), the E Street Band-featuring Letter to You (2020) and a solo cover album Only the Strong Survive (2022). When Letter to You went to No.2 in the US, Springsteen became the first artist to score a Top Five hit across six consecutive decades.
Among the album era's prominent acts, Springsteen has sold more than 140 million records worldwide and more than 71 million in the United States, making him one of the world's best-selling music artists. He has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a Special Tony Award (for Springsteen on Broadway). Springsteen was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, named MusiCares person of the year in 2013, and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2016. He ranked 23rd on Rolling Stone's list of the Greatest Artists of All Time, which described him as being "the embodiment of rock & roll".
Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen
Studio albums
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)
The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)
Born to Run (1975)
Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
The River (1980)
Nebraska (1982)
Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
Tunnel of Love (1987)
Human Touch (1992)
Lucky Town (1992)
The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995)
The Rising (2002)
Devils & Dust (2005)
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)
Magic (2007)
Working on a Dream (2009)
Wrecking Ball (2012)
High Hopes (2014)
Western Stars (2019)
Letter to You (2020)
Only the Strong Survive (2022)
I Want You
Bruce Springsteen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The lonesome organ grinder cries
The silver saxophone says
I should refuse you
The cracked bells and washed out horns
Blow into my face with scorn
But it's not that way
I wasn't born to lose you
I want you so bad
Honey I want you
The drunken politician leaps
Upon the streets where mothers weep
And the saviors who are fast asleep
They wait for you
And I wait for them to interrupt
Me drinking from my broken cup
And ask me to open up
The gate for you
Now all my fathers
They've gone down
True love
They've been without it
But all their daughters
Put me down
'Cause I don't
Think about it
Well I return to the queen of spades
And talk with my chamber maid
She knows that I'm not afraid to
Look at her
She is good to me and there's
Nothing she doesn't see
She knows where I'd like to be
But it doesn't matter
Now your dancing child with the chinese suit
He spoke to me I took his flute
No I wasn't very cute to him
Was I
But I did it because he lied
Because he took you for a ride
And because time was on his side
And because I
Want you I want you
I want you so bad
Honey I want you
The song I Want You by Bruce Springsteen has deep emotional and introspective lyrics that touch upon love, rejection, and acceptance. The lyrics convey a feeling of longing and desperation to connect with someone despite societal disapproval and personal fears. The opening line "The guilty undertaker sighs," suggests a feeling of guilt and remorse that permeates the song's narrator's persona. This feeling of guilt caused by his intense desire for his love interest is reflected by the "lonesome organ grinder" and "silver saxophone" that harshly criticize and scold him for his yearning. The singer acknowledges this but maintains his steadfastness in wanting his love interest, despite the challenges he is facing: "But it's not that way, I wasn't born to lose you, I want you, I want you, I want you so bad, honey I want you."
The second verse delves deeper into the challenges he faces in his pursuit of love. He describes the world as a place where a drunken politician happily feasts on the grief of mothers and where saviors are sleeping while waiting for his love. The gatekeeper, who is the singer himself, is drinking from a broken cup, waiting for the interruption of the saviors, which he knows will never arrive. The singer's loneliness is palpable in these verses, and it highlights the vulnerability he feels. The rejection he faces by his love interest's father and society, in general, causes him to return to the comfort of the queen of spades, who brings him solace.
Overall, the song speaks to the universal human experience of love and the many obstacles that come in the way of its fulfillment. The singer is honest and raw with his emotions, which is reflected in the song's intense melody and delivery.
Line by Line Meaning
The guilty undertaker sighs
The undertaker who has committed a crime sighs with guilt
The lonesome organ grinder cries
The organ grinder who is alone cries out of loneliness
The silver saxophone says I should refuse you
The saxophone advises me to reject you
The cracked bells and washed out horns blow into my face with scorn
The damaged bells and horns make a sound of disapproval in my direction
But it's not that way, I wasn't born to lose you
Despite the negative sounds and opinions, I won't give up on you because losing you is not in my nature
I want you I want you, I want you so bad, Honey I want you
I desire you intensely and can't get enough of you
The drunken politician leaps upon the streets where mothers weep
The politician who is inebriated jumps into the midst of a crying community
And the saviors who are fast asleep, they wait for you
The people who could help are asleep and waiting for you to take charge
And I wait for them to interrupt me drinking from my broken cup
I wait for others to intervene and prevent me from persisting in my unhealthy habits
And ask me to open up the gate for you
They'll ask me to give you access or a chance to be with me
Now all my fathers, they've gone down
All my predecessors have lost their battles or experienced decline
True love, they've been without it
They couldn't find true love or failed to maintain it
But all their daughters put me down, 'cause I don't think about it
Their daughters scorn me because I don't focus on finding true love
Well, I return to the queen of spades and talk with my chambermaid
I go back to a previous love interest and confide in my servant
She knows that I'm not afraid to look at her
My chambermaid knows that I'm not intimidated by her
She is good to me and there's nothing she doesn't see
She is kind to me and is observant of my behaviors and feelings
She knows where I'd like to be but it doesn't matter
She knows where I want to go, but nothing will change the reality of my situation
Now your dancing child with his Chinese suit, he spoke to me, I took his flute
Your child, dressed in a Chinese outfit, talked to me and I took his instrument
No, I wasn't very cute to him, was I?
I wasn't charming or friendly towards him
But I did it because he lied, because he took you for a ride, and because time was on his side
I took his flute because he deceived you, took you on a wild ride, and had the advantage of time
And because I want you, I want you, I want you so bad, Honey, I want you
Despite everything that has happened, I still crave and need you in my life
Contributed by Christopher G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
arlen schumer
On February 5, 1975, at a benefit for The Main Point, a club in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, a favorite early haunt of Bruce and the Band’s, outside of early fan base Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band covered Bob Dylan's "I Want You."
As long as mankind has been singing, there have been original songs, and covers of them. Though there have been some great cover versions since time immemorial, in most cases, the original is always considered better; rarely has a cover superseded a truly great, classic original. Has anyone sung “Old Man River” better than Paul Robeson? “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” better than Judy Garland? “My Way” better than Sinatra (sorry, Elvis)? “I Want You” better than Dylan?
In the case of the latter, yes: Bruce Springsteen.
His startlingly re-arranged version of Dylan’s ’66 single, from his double-LP masterpiece Blonde on Blonde, gets to the emotional core of what it feels like to want someone so deeply—aided immeasurably by the upfront-in-the-mix melodic bass playing of Garry Tallent, climbing up and down the scales throughout the song, and most prominently, Suki Lahav’s ethereal violin playing (she plays the opening violin on Born To Run’s “Jungleland,” and was an ad hoc member of The E Street Band from fall ’74 through spring ’75; her inclusion with the band, and the cover of this song, might’ve influenced Dylan himself to recruit a violinist, Scarlett Rivera, while recording his Desire album in mid-’75, adding her to his Rolling Thunder Revue that began that fall)—that it renders Dylan’s original a bouncy pop song in comparison.
john Weiman-CPLC
I'll never forget slow dancing to this exact cover with my girlfriend when I was 19 years old in 1980. She cried in my arms. I'm 60 now and there's few moments in life that you never forget and thanks Bruce.
Bonnie Yoshida-Levine
One of my favorite all-time Springsteen covers. Deconstructed and reinvented. Results in an emphasis on the lyrics. Beautiful.
john Weiman-CPLC
I slow danced with my h.s girlfriend to this and she cried. Incredible memory.
Sylvia Robles
Love it! 💘
Astral
I am still entranced by this cover after finding it years ago. The band was really feeling something magical when they performed this.
Charo Blasco Lafita
No tengo palabras para esta joya
Tim Schwartz
Love it!
Luiggi Michael Riwu-Kaho
Great singer meet Great song = amazing🎙🎶🤟
CAROL FAIRCHILD
Beautiful almost as good as Dylan simply sweet
City Hunter
A Genius covering another Genius