"I'm Goin' Down" | ||||
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Single by Bruce Springsteen | ||||
from the album Born in the U.S.A. | ||||
B-side | ||||
Released | August 27, 1985 | |||
Recorded | May 12–13, 1982 | |||
Studio | Power Station, New York City | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 3:29 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bruce Springsteen | |||
Producer(s) |
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Bruce Springsteen singles chronology | ||||
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"I'm Goin' Down" is a rock song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. It was released on August 27, 1985 by Columbia Records as the sixth single from his 1984 album Born in the U.S.A. The song was recorded with the E Street Band in May 1982 at Power Station studio in New York City, and co-produced by Springsteen, Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, and Steve Van Zandt. Although Springsteen had changing ideas about the songs to put on the album, "I'm Goin' Down" was ultimately selected for inclusion.
The recording is based on an energetic band performance that gives prominence to a heavy drum sound. The lyrics focus on sexual frustration in a deteriorating relationship. The single reached No. 9 on both Billboard and the top 30 in Sweden, Italy, and Canada. On the album's release, it was praised by critics for the band's musicianship and Springsteen's vocals and lyrics. Later it received favorable rankings in retrospectives of Springsteen's career, among which was an NME list calling it his fourth best song.
Springsteen has not often performed the song since the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. Between 2002 and 2023, it appeared on about 6.5 percent of the set lists published on his official website. "I'm Goin' Down" has been covered by Frank Black and the Catholics, Trampled by Turtles, Free Energy, Vampire Weekend, and other artists.
Bruce Springsteen's fifth album, The River , was released in October 1980 and reached No. 1 in the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart. [1] His follow-up, Nebraska , began as a series of solo demo recordings, of which fifteen songs were mixed onto a cassette on January 3, 1982. [2] [3] That April, he began recording sessions at the Power Station music studio in New York City with the E Street Band [4] [5] —whose line-up then consisted of Roy Bittan, Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, Garry Tallent, Steve Van Zandt, and Max Weinberg—with production by Springsteen, Van Zandt, Jon Landau, and Chuck Plotkin. [6]
He at first recorded a number of full-band versions of Nebraska songs, including "Atlantic City", "Nebraska", and "Mansion on the Hill". [7] However, he and his co-producers were dissatisfied with the recordings. [7] To buy time to decide on the best approach for these songs, by May 1982 the band had begun to record other material he had written. [7] "I'm Goin' Down" was recorded over May 12–13, [6] [8] with Toby Scott as the audio engineer, and Billy Straus one of his assistants. [6] In 2012, Clinton Heylin wrote that throughout the ten recorded takes of the song, Springsteen let the band "vamp away, only to curtail them in the final mix". [8] Eventually, Springsteen released ten of the solo recordings from the January cassette as the Nebraska album, [9] which came out in September 1982, [10] and temporarily shelved "I'm Goin' Down" and other band tracks from May. [11] [n 1]
In 1983, he recorded more songs with the E Street Band, but was considering using solo tracks for his next album, which eventually became Born in the U.S.A. , as he had done for Nebraska. [15] By the following year, Landau and Plotkin had convinced Springsteen to release band tracks, including several from May 1982 and a number of subsequently recorded songs. [13] [16] At one point, Springsteen was not going to include "I'm Goin' Down" on Born in the U.S.A., but later added it in place of "Pink Cadillac", [17] [18] which he used as the B-side for "Dancing in the Dark". [18]
A rock song, [20] "I'm Goin' Down" is described by Uncut contributor John Lewis as having a country music influence, and "sound[ing] in places like Johnny Cash". [21] For other critics, the song contains rockabilly elements. [22] [23] It begins with a short two-phrase guitar line, [6] followed by Weinberg's heavy drum beat, [19] one of the most prominent components in the song. [6] [23] Music biographers Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin have commented on Bob Clearmountain's "signature" mixing of the track that makes the snare drum sound "[crack] like a whip". [6] These instruments are supplemented by bass by Tallent, a Hammond B-3 organ part by Federici, and piano by Bittan. [6] The song additionally includes a tenor saxophone solo by Clemons, [6] [24] and hand-clapping by the band. [6] [20] The music is based on a descending chord progression of A ("I'm goin")–E ("down, down down")–F♯m ("down, I'm goin")–D ("down"), [25] which is played throughout the track, while the bass guitar plays around the root of E. [26]
Reviewers have commented on the contrast between the song's upbeat music and sad lyrics. [24] [27] [28] The song explores themes of sexual or romantic frustration, [29] [30] [31] loneliness, [29] and grief resulting from unsuccessful relationships. [20] [32] Some reviewers have found humor in the lyrics, [19] [30] which describe incidents such as the narrator's girlfriend rejecting his attempts at intimacy and sighing with boredom, as well as the couple returning home fighting after a date. [27] In concert, Springsteen has described "I'm Goin' Down" in jest as "one of my more insightful songs about men and women". [33] In live performances from 1984, he sometimes used variations of the following introduction for the song: "[First] you're making love to 'em all the time, three or four times a day. Then you come back a little bit later, and, uh-oh ... it's like 'Are you gonna make love to me tonight, or are we gonna wait for the full moon again', y'know?" [34] [35]
In researcher Pamela Moss's feminist analysis of social class and gender in Springsteen's lyrics, she describes the singer's early-to-mid-1980s oeuvre as being filled with despair. [36] Moss states that within this context, men fault women for not helping them achieve their dream of finding "a promised land". [37] In "I'm Goin' Down", with the "deterioration of a desirable sexual relationship [the narrator] feels he is being 'set up' by the woman just so she will be able to reject him". According to Moss, the man sees the woman's rejection as interference holding back his attempt at a "liberation of the tedium of a working class existence". [37]
Born in the U.S.A. was released on June 4, 1984 by Columbia Records, [38] and "I'm Goin' Down", the album's sixth single, [39] on August 27, 1985. [40] [41] The 7-inch single version includes B-side "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart", [42] while the 12-inch Maxi has "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" and "Held Up Without a Gun". [43] [n 2] In the United States, "I'm Goin' Down" entered the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on September 7, [54] and peaked at No. 9 on October 25. [55] It was one of a record-tying seven top 10 singles to be released from a single album. [n 3] It also charted in Canada, [56] Australia, [57] Italy, [58] Sweden, and Germany. [43] No music video was made for the song. [59] The track was additionally released on 12" Single Collection in 1985, [60] and The Album Collection Vol. 1 1973–1984 in 2014. [61] Writer Greg Kot has noted that despite the single's chart success, the song was not included on Springsteen's 1995 Greatest Hits compilation. [62]
"I'm Goin' Down" was generally well received by critics at the time of the album's release. Some reviewers considered the song to be among the best on Born in the U.S.A., [23] [64] including Ken Tucker of The Philadelphia Inquirer , who called the track one of the "emotional centerpieces on the album, and perhaps [one of] the finest examples of Springsteen's songwriting to date". [64] The Morning Call 's Paul Willistein and The Cincinnati Enquirer 's Cliff Radel similarly commended the songwriting. [31] [65] Willistein wrote that the composition "evidences vulnerability, sensitivity and wisdom". [65] Among the musical components praised by critics were its percussion, [19] [66] vocals, [31] [66] and guitar, [66] as well as Clemons' saxophone solo. [63] The musicians' passion [23] and the song's fun energy [67] were other elements singled out by reviewers. Debbie Miller of Rolling Stone described the track as "wonderfully exuberant". [19] Sounds critic Sandy Robertson, reviewing a pre-release version of Born in the U.S.A. on which the title was listed as "Down Down Down", characterized the song as "a hit single if I ever heard one" and "the core that justifies most of the hype dumped on [Springsteen]". [66]
Some contemporary reviews were negative or neutral. The Vancouver Sun 's Ian Gill dismissed the track as "simply a concession to the zit set". [68] About the song's choice as the album's sixth single, critic Jan DeKnock called the release "the dud of the week" that was "an uninspired ... filler cut". [69] David Hinkley of New York's Daily News considered it an unexceptional song on which Springsteen did not add much that was new to its common theme. [70]
Springsteen has played "I'm Goin' Down" infrequently since the end of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. [33] For his tours between 2002 and 2023, many of the set lists have been published on his official website, Brucespringsteen.net. [71] [72] Of these, all of the singer's performances of the song are listed in the table below. [n 4]
Springsteen sometimes takes song requests at concerts by collecting signs from the audience, as he did for "I'm Goin' Down" on May 21, 2009 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, [73] [74] on February 27, 2016 in Rochester, New York, [75] and on August 2, 2008 in Foxborough, Massachusetts—where he introduced the song as "rarely played and even more rarely requested". [76] [77]
A number of music critics have mentioned how live versions differ from the Born in the U.S.A. version. [78] [79] Describing a performance of the song at an August 25, 1984 show in Landover, Maryland, critic Geoffrey Himes wrote that the "lean, synth-dominated album arrangement was supplanted by a full-tilt rock 'n' soul version". [79] Springsteen later admitted that the recorded version "had a swing ... we could never capture live". [80]
Tour or special performance | Year | Location and date | # of published "I'm Goin' Down" performances |
---|---|---|---|
The Rising Tour | 2002 [71] | N/A | 0/45 (0%) |
2003 [71] | Philadelphia – August 11 Hartford – September 18 Detroit – September 21 | 3/75 (4%) | |
Devils & Dust Tour | 2005 [81] | N/A | 0/72 (0%) |
Bruce Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band Tour | 2006 [82] | N/A | 0/27 (0%) |
Magic Tour | 2007 [83] | N/A | 0/40 (0%) |
2008 [84] | Barcelona – July 20 Foxborough – August 2 Nashville – August 21 | 3/64 (4.7%) | |
Working on a Dream Tour | 2009 [72] | Tulsa – April 7 Los Angeles – April 15 Boston – April 21 East Rutherford – May 21 Stockholm – June 4 Frankfurt – July 3 Carhaix – July 16 Mansfield – August 23 Chicago – September 20 East Rutherford – October 2 East Rutherford – October 3* East Rutherford – October 9* Philadelphia – October 20* | 13/85 (15.3%) |
Wrecking Ball World Tour | 2012 [85] | Sevilla – May 13 Paris – July 5 Gothenburg – July 28 Chicago – September 7 Hamilton – October 21 Oakland – November 30 | 6/91 (6.6%) |
2013 [86] | Melbourne – March 27 Stockholm – May 11* Munich – May 26* Milan – June 3* Paris – June 29* London – June 30* Kilkenny – July 27* Rio de Janeiro – September 21* | 8/47 (17%) | |
High Hopes Tour | 2014 [87] | Melbourne – February 15* Hunter Valley – February 23 Auckland – March 1* | 3/34 (8.8%) |
Saturday Night Live | 2015 [88] | N/A | 0/1 (0%) |
The River Tour | 2016 [89] | Rochester – February 27 Seattle – March 24 Barcelona – May 14 San Sebastián – May 17 Glasgow – June 1 Oslo – June 29 East Rutherford – August 30 Philadelphia – September 9 | 8/72 (11.1%) |
2017 [90] | Perth – January 27 Melbourne – February 4 Mount Macedon – February 11 Hunter Valley – February 18 | 4/14 (28.6%) | |
2023 Tour | 2023 [91] | N/A | 0/66 (0%) |
Total | 48/733 (6.5%) | ||
*Indicates that Springsteen performed the entire Born in the U.S.A. album at this concert. |
"I'm Goin' Down" has received various ratings in overviews that consider all of Springsteen's songs. A 2017 article in NME calls it the fourth greatest Springsteen song of all time. [92] A 2014 Rolling Stone article ranks "I'm Goin' Down" as the 52nd best Bruce Springsteen song ever, [33] and it is included in writer June Skinner Sawyer's Tougher Than the Rest: 100 Best Bruce Springsteen Songs. [27] By contrast, in Counting Down Bruce Springsteen: His 100 Finest Songs, Jim Beviglia puts "I'm Goin' Down" as the 131st best Springsteen track, [93] calling it "a fun but relatively minor" work. [94] A critic for NJ.com described it as the worst song of Born in the U.S.A., and placed it in the No. 164 position of 318 of the singer's works. [95] In 2015, Uncut rated the song four stars out of five. [96]
In the Billboard 2014 article "Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. at 30: Classic Track-By-Track Album Review", Caryn Rose called it the album's "most underrated song" and "the kind of good-time party song that Springsteen and E Street do best, sliding easily through the verses with a ... bouncing rhythm ... and a fun, jumping end". [24] The song is likewise described favorably in "Born in the U.S.A. has stood the test of time", a 2002 overview in New Jersey's Daily Record newspaper. [28]
Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the eastern United States, Clear Channel Communications—the owner at the time of over 1000 radio stations [97] —issued a memorandum of songs to temporarily avoid playing, which included "I'm Goin' Down". [98] The list comprised songs that were "too dark ... [or referred] to crashes ... or death", [99] or that simply had "questionable" titles, [97] which might depress listeners grieving from the attacks. [99]
Various musicians have covered "I'm Goin' Down". In 1998, Frank Black and the Catholics—whose bandleader has expressed his admiration for the "brilliant ... structure" of Springsteen's recording [100] —included a version on their "Dog Gone" single, [101] and in 2015 on The Complete Recordings . [102] Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong put out a cover in 2012 as part of his Tim Timebomb and Friends collection, [103] while Dessa released a version on her 2013 album Parts of Speech . [104] [105] The following year, a recording with fiddles and banjos by bluegrass group Trampled by Turtles, who have frequently played "I'm Goin' Down" in concert, [106] appeared on the multi-artist compilation album Dead Man's Town: A Tribute to Born in the U.S.A. [107]
In September 2010, the online magazines Stereogum and Pitchfork noted how multiple bands had recently performed "I'm Goin' Down" in live settings within weeks of each other: [110] [111] Vampire Weekend played the song in concert in Vancouver and a few days later in early September on a radio show in Seattle, [112] while Free Energy and Titus Andronicus performed it together later that month in Atlanta on their joint tour. [111] Like Frank Black, members of Vampire Weekend have expressed their high regard for Springsteen's composition, among whom vocalist Ezra Koenig had previously listened to the song "constantly", [113] and bassist Chris Baio cited Springsteen's "incredible melodies, incredible lyrics" that led the band to think "it would be exciting to put our spin on" the song. [114] Free Energy and Vampire Weekend each released a recording of it on iTunes in 2010. [108] [115] Other releases include a Spotify single by Vampire Weekend in 2019. [109]
Chart (1985) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart [57] | 41 |
Canadian RPM Singles Chart [56] | 23 |
German Gfk Singles Charts [43] | 61 |
Italian Musica e Dischi Singles Chart [58] | 20 |
Swedish Sverigetopplistan Singles Charts [43] | 13 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [55] | 9 |
The personnel listed below participated in the recording of "I'm Goin' Down": [6]
Musicians:
Technical team:
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", he has released 21 studio albums over six decades, most featuring the E Street Band, his backing band since 1972. Springsteen is a pioneer of heartland rock, combining commercially successful rock with poetic, socially conscious lyrics which reflect working class American life. He is known for his descriptive lyrics and energetic concerts, which sometimes last over four hours.
Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 4, 1984, by Columbia Records. Produced by Springsteen, Jon Landau, Steven Van Zandt, and Chuck Plotkin, the album was recorded in New York City with the E Street Band over two years between January 1982 and March 1984. Some of the songs originated from the same demo tape that yielded Springsteen's previous album, the solo effort Nebraska (1982), while others were written after that album's release. The sessions yielded between 70 and 90 songs; some were released as B-sides, some later saw release on compilation albums, while others remain unreleased.
"Thunder Road" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. It is the opening track on his breakthrough album Born to Run. While never released as a single, "Thunder Road" is nevertheless considered one of Springsteen's greatest songs and one of the top rock songs in history. It is ranked number 111 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
Live/1975–85 is a live album by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, consisting of 40 tracks recorded at various concerts between 1975 and 1985, and released as a box set by Columbia Records on November 10, 1986. It broke the record for advance orders, and, according to RIAA certification, is the second-best-selling live album in the US. Rolling Stone hailed it as "an embarrassment of riches", while The New York Times said it was "an unprecedented event in popular recording" and "monumental".
The E Street Band is an American rock band that has been the primary backing band for rock musician Bruce Springsteen since 1972. In 2014, the E Street Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the bulk of Springsteen's recording and performing career, the band included guitarists Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, and Patti Scialfa, keyboardists Danny Federici and Roy Bittan, bassist Garry Tallent, drummer Max Weinberg and saxophonist Clarence Clemons.
"Born in the U.S.A." is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen and released in 1984 on the album of the same name as its opening track. One of Springsteen's best-known songs, 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, remaining a favorite in classic rock. The song addresses the economic hardships of Vietnam veterans upon their return home, juxtaposed ironically against patriotic glorification of the nation's fighting forces.
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"Dancing in the Dark" is a song written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. It was the first single released ahead from his 1984 album, Born in the U.S.A., and became his biggest hit, helping the album become the best-selling album of his career.
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"Pink Cadillac" is a song by Bruce Springsteen released as the non-album B-side of "Dancing in the Dark" in 1984. The song received much airplay worldwide and appeared on the Billboard Top Tracks chart for 14 weeks, peaking at No. 27. The song was also a prominent concert number during Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. Tour.
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The River Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in support of Springsteen's 2015 The Ties That Bind: The River Collection box set and in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Springsteen's 1980 album, The River. The River Tour ended in September 2016. Subsequently, the Summer '17 tour in Australia and New Zealand continued the tour using the same promotional image from the original legs.
Springsteen on Broadway is a concert residency by Bruce Springsteen held at the Walter Kerr Theatre and St. James Theatre in New York City. The original residency at the Walter Kerr Theatre consisted of Springsteen performing five shows a week, Tuesday through Saturday. Preview performances began on October 3, 2017, followed by the official opening on October 12, 2017. The run was originally expected to conclude on November 26, 2017; however, due to high demand for tickets and issues with scalpers, additional dates were added through June 30, 2018. The show was extended a second time on March 20, 2018, extending the run through December 15, 2018. On June 7, 2021, Springsteen announced a limited 31-show run of Springsteen on Broadway at the St. James Theatre beginning on June 26, 2021, with additional performances through September 4, 2021.
The Springsteen and E Street Band 2023 Tour is an ongoing concert tour by American singer Bruce Springsteen and his backing band the E Street Band. The tour began on February 1, 2023, in Tampa, Florida; it marks the first time since 2017 that Springsteen and the E Street Band have toured together. The tour is currently scheduled to conclude on July 3, 2025, in Milan. Due to band member illnesses and Springsteen suffering his own health issues, twenty-four dates of the tour were postponed and were rescheduled for 2024. Four dates in May and June 2024 were also postponed due to vocal issues suffered by Springsteen.
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