Bruce Springsteen

In Harlem late last night And a magic rat drove his sleek machine Over a Jersey state line Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain The rat pulls and the town rolls up his pants Together they take a stab at romance And disappear down from England lane

Will a maximum law man run down from Engle chasing her head in a barefoot girl?

Will the kids around here look just like shadows, always quiet, holding hands?

From the churches to the jails, tonight all is silent in the world.

Jungle Land

Immediately after Born to Run, I felt I had sort of, okay, that was the song of my youth.

These three records, they were the...

but maybe particularly Born to Run.

I always felt like that's the song of my youth.

Well, I wrote that song.

Now I've got to write something else.

And I became attracted to country music and older blues and folk because they seem to bring the same intensity to adult issues and adult problems.

And I immediately thought, this is a lifetime job for me, you know.

I want to write songs I can sing when I'm at that great advanced age of 40 years old.

And I remember thinking about that when I was in my late 20s, that I wanted them to have some content and some weight that would...

sustained me as I grew older, you know.

I look back now and it was in the songs of my youth, you know, and I continue to sing them today.

But I think I became a little more conscious about it after Born to Run and going into darkness on the edge of town on the river.

That's when the initial country influences start to come up in the music.

And thematically, there's people that are married, there's people that are struggling, there's people that are noticeably living young adult lives and adult lives.