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"Badlands" | ||||
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Single by Bruce Springsteen | ||||
from the album Darkness on the Edge of Town | ||||
B-side |
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Released | August 1978 | |||
Recorded | February 25, 1978 (completed) | |||
Studio | The Record Plant, New York City, New York | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:01 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bruce Springsteen | |||
Producer(s) | Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau | |||
Bruce Springsteen singles chronology | ||||
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"Badlands" is the leadoff track on Bruce Springsteen's fourth studio album Darkness on the Edge of Town , and its second single.
According to Springsteen, he came up with the title "Badlands" before he started writing the song. [3] He felt it was a "great title" but that it would be easy to blow it by not writing a worthy song for it. [3]
The riff is based on The Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". [3] According to the editors of Rolling Stone , the song "tapped into the ferocity of the punk singles he'd been listening to at the time". [3]
The song tells the story of a man down on his luck and angry at the world, who wants a better lot in life.
Baby, I got my facts
Learned real good right now
You better get it straight darlin’
Poor man wanna be rich
Rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied
'Til he rules everything
I wanna go out tonightI wanna find out what I got
On March 15, 2012, in a keynote speech to an audience at the South by Southwest music festival, Springsteen discussed the Animals' influence on his music at length, praising their harsh, propulsive sound and lyrical content. Saying that Darkness on the Edge of Town was "filled with Animals", Springsteen played the opening riffs to "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and his own "Badlands" back to back, then said, "Listen up, youngsters! This is how successful theft is accomplished!" [4]
In Brian Hiatt's 2019 book, Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs, the finished first verse is said to lay out the "narrator's essential dilemma in a more sophisticated fashion than Springsteen had managed before, acknowledging larger forces at work". He is "caught in a crossfire", Springsteen taking significant lyrical inspiration from Elvis Presley's "King of the Whole Wide World" (particularly the words "A poor man wants to be a rich man/ A rich man wants to be a king"): a song which appeared in the 1962 United Artists film Kid Galahad and featuring, in its single master version, a strong saxophone performance by Boots Randolph.
The classic E Street Band sound is immediately present on "Badlands", as a brief drum intro kicks in to a powerful piano-and-electric guitar riff. The song is taken fast, with Max Weinberg's dynamic drumming; indeed it contains his most well-known beat, a one-two-three-four-five-six-(double time) one-two-three pattern underneath the verses. Late in the song a brief guitar break leads to a Clarence Clemons tenor saxophone part.
"Badlands" was not a commercial Top 40 success, only reaching #42 on the Billboard Hot 100, even worse than the album's previous single "Prove It All Night". "Badlands" did achieve considerable progressive rock and album-oriented rock radio airplay at the time, and classic rock airplay since. The song has appeared on eight Springsteen releases: Darkness on the Edge of Town, Live/1975–85 , the 1995 Greatest Hits , Live in New York City , Live in Barcelona , The Essential Bruce Springsteen , the Wal-Mart-only 2009 Greatest Hits , and Collection: 1973-2012.
Rolling Stone editors rated "Badlands" to be Springsteen's second-greatest song all time, behind only "Born to Run", and consider it to fit the definition of a rock anthem derived by The Who guitarist Pete Townshend, in that it is "praying onstage". [3] According to contemporary musician Jackson Browne, "Badlands" is "cool and thrilling. There's an economy of language that comes in here. He's building a persona, a lexicon of references." [3]
As evidenced by its appearance on three live offerings, "Badlands" has been a staple of Springsteen and E Street Band concert performances. Indeed, it is Springsteen's fourth most played song in concert besides "Born to Run", "Thunder Road" and "The Promised Land". [5] It opened shows on the 1978 Darkness Tour before the album had even been released, a slot it held for much of that tour (one such performance from Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum was filmed and released as a promotional video in the early 1980s). It was featured near or at the end of the first set during the 1980–1981 River Tour (one such performance from Arizona State University, famously introduced by Springsteen decrying the election of Ronald Reagan as president the night before, was included on Live 1975–85 , less the intro), a spot it held for much of the 1984–1985 Born in the U.S.A. Tour until the stadium shows, when it was used to keep momentum going out of the opening "Born in the U.S.A.". "Badlands" was put on the shelf for most of the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express, a mark of how radically that tour sought to throw out stock show elements. Once the 1992–1993 "Other Band" Tour was underway, it was quickly added back in for some needed mid-first-set energy. Springsteen seemed to conclude it fit this role, as he kept it in the same "10 songs in" position during all of the 1999–2000 Reunion Tour and 2002–2003 Rising Tour shows, recapturing audience enthusiasm after less familiar material such as "Murder, Inc." or "Worlds Apart" were performed. On the 2007 Magic Tour, however, the shortened show time resulted in "Badlands" becoming even more prominent as the main set closer. For the 2009 Working on a Dream Tour, "Badlands" resumed its old role as the show opener; it stayed in that slot until the final two months of the tour—when Springsteen chose to play the Born to Run album in its entirety at a show, "Badlands" was usually shifted to be the final song of the main set, which the track "Born to Run" had previously held on the tour.
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He has released twenty studio albums, many of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is one of the originators of the heartland rock style of music, combining mainstream rock musical style with narrative songs about working class American life. During a career that has spanned five decades, Springsteen has become known for his poetic, socially conscious lyrics and energetic stage performances, sometimes lasting up to four hours in length. He has been nicknamed "the Boss".
"Rosalita " is a 1973 song by Bruce Springsteen, from his The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle album, and is especially famed as a concert number for Springsteen and The E Street Band. The song, which clocks in at just over seven minutes, is a story of forbidden love between the singer and the titular Rosalita, whose parents disapprove of his life in a rock and roll band. It is included on the compilation albums The Essential Bruce Springsteen and Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Greatest Hits.
Darkness on the Edge of Town is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 2, 1978. The album marked the end of a three-year gap between albums brought on by contractual obligations and legal battling with former manager Mike Appel.
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"Thunder Road" is a 1975 song written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen, that became the opening track on his breakthrough album Born to Run. While never released as a single, "Thunder Road" is ranked as one of Springsteen's greatest songs and one of the top rock songs in history. It is No. 86 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, and also the 103rd best ranked song on critics' all-time lists according to Acclaimed Music.
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"Born in the U.S.A." is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen, and released in 1984 on the album of the same name. One of Springsteen's best-known singles, it was ranked 275th on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and in 2001, the RIAA's Songs of the Century placed the song 59th. The song addresses the economic hardships of Vietnam veterans upon their return home, juxtaposed ironically against patriotic glorification of the nation's fighting forces.
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is a song written by Bennie Benjamin, Horace Ott and Sol Marcus for the American singer-songwriter and pianist Nina Simone, who recorded the first version in 1964. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" has been covered by many artists, most notably by The Animals, whose blues rock version of the song became a transatlantic hit in 1965. A 1977 four-on-the-floor disco rearrangement by the disco group Santa Esmeralda was also a hit, while the 1986 cover by new wave musician Elvis Costello found success in the British Isles.
The River Tour was a concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band that took place in 1980 and 1981, beginning concurrently with the release of Springsteen's album The River.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Darkness Tour was a concert tour of North America that ran from May 1978 through the rest of the year, in conjunction with the release of Springsteen's album Darkness on the Edge of Town.
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"She's the One" is a song by Bruce Springsteen. Frequently featured in Springsteen and E Street Band concert performances, it first appeared on the Born to Run album in 1975. It was also released as the B-side to Springsteen's "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" single.
"Backstreets" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from the album Born to Run, which was released in 1975. In the original vinyl release, it concludes side one of the record.
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"The Promised Land" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town. It was released as a single in Europe, backed by another song from Darkness on the Edge of Town, "Streets of Fire", the third single from the album after "Badlands" and "Prove It All Night". "The Promised Land" was also included on the compilation album The Essential Bruce Springsteen. The song has been a staple of Springsteen's live shows since 1978, and has been included on several concert albums and videos. The live album Live/1975–85 includes a 1985 performance of "The Promised Land" from a concert in Los Angeles, California. A performance of the song from a 2003 concert in Barcelona is included on the Live in Barcelona video. A June 28, 2009 live performance in London from the Working on a Dream Tour was included on the London Calling: Live in Hyde Park DVD. The box set The Promise contains video of three live performances of "The Promised Land", a 2009 performance from the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park, New Jersey, without an audience, a 1978 performance from a concert in Phoenix, Arizona, and another 1978 performance from a concert in Houston, Texas. Darren Hanlon covered "The Promised Land" on Play Some Pool, Skip Some School, Act Real Cool. Eddie Vedder has also covered this song live.
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