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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
And 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 waiting 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
We swore we'd live forever on the backstreets we take it 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 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
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
And 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 waiting 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
We swore we'd live forever on the backstreets we take it 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 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
Lyrics submitted by Bobo192
Track duration: 06:29
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During the early days of the Born to Run sessions, Bruce was singing a longer more drawn out version of Shes the One, which contained the early seeds of what would become Backstreets. Bruce was streamlining his wordiness during this period, and you can see the streamlining that took place from his earlier records to Born to Run, and progressed even further into Darkness.
Obviously Shes the One is about a girl, I think we can all agree upon that, so...
From Early versions of Shes the One:
Most of all I hated that town and what they did,
I hated the way they made us live,
I hated him and his fancy ways,
and I hated you when you went away
And of course Backstreets:
There was nothing left to say but I hated him
and I hated you when you went away
From Backstreets:
Laying here in the dark you're like an angel on my chest
Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness
(By the way, just how does this imagery project to a platonic male friendship?)
Similar imagery from Shes the One:
Now you're back and you're huddled in a corner
Where you hated me baby just like a child.
From Shes the One:
Remember all those movies, baby,
all those movies that we'd go see
Trying to learn how to walk tough, talk rough
Just like those heroes we thought we had to be.
And of Course Backstreets:
Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see
Trying to learn how to walk like heroes we thought we had to be
Furthermore when he would play Backstreets in concert in 78, he would slow it down and go into a free word version of Sad Eyes, which would later become Drive All Night released on the River album. Sad Eyes, like Drive All Night, was clearly about a woman, and her coming back into his life much like the last verse of Backstreets. Now of course you can say that Sad Eyes was just a new song idea he was trying out, but then why stick it in the middle of a song about male friendship?
The piano at the start is amazing.
I agree this is a song about male friendship, and is very well and cleverly written to be ambiguous as to exact meaning. Heartwrenching and sad, it is about two young guys awakening to adulthood, sex, love and loneliness.
'Tying fate between our teeth', if it means a touriquette and shooting up, is followed by 'getting wasted in the heat.' "Desperate lovers (gay encounters or a straight lover's lane) parked, and talking to the 'last of the Duke Street Kings'. Or trying to walk like movie heros. These are images of male role models or of past male glory passing away in the heartlessness of time and forgetting.
Teen without a girlfriends or jobs have a rare friendship meeting by fate at that key moment of transition, just before responsibility and compromise set in. They are willing to go into the search for life and truth because nothing is holding them back, they have nothing to lose. "Waiting for bells that ring' can signal the beginning, end or even just being within this sort of mythic, walkabout time.
Tradgedy stalks this bonding, if only because it is a relationship society doesn't understand and fears, maybe even the gods fear, and has to end. So it exists on the outskirts, and like gay relationships has to be played off and hidden. If the two guys are (and probably are) lovers, they may or may not be gay. In any case it seems later the singer can't find the true love he once had and lost. Sex is no longer a bridge to love and self sharing. The typical, casual sex he now has, that is somehow approved of, is felt as a betrayal.
I think it ended by the 'street' killing the singer's friend, love turning to hate because he "went away" What he really hates is his own loss of his friend and their love, which he knows can never come again. Bruce's screams of mourning hit this so well tears well up in your eyes. Springsteen sings this with the kind off emotional resonance, stength and lack of fear that make the storytelling of his songs hit home on such a very personal level.
Cheers
Chief
Chiefhouserocker.com
It could also be his best friend he "hated him when he went away". This is backed by the stories Bruce tells.
They both relate to each other by having hated their fathers. "With a love so hard and filled with defeat. Running for our lives at night on them backstreets."
"Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house getting wasted in the heat"... Most likely to be done with his friend.
Hiding in the backstreets - wherever it might be - would indicate that they are afraid of being exposed. That's something every kid is afraid of when they're young; especially when something is done ethically wrong. They would get their rush on running on the backstreets and experiencing things like youngsters do.
He could have visualized and related his friend acting like his father: "There was nothing left to say but I hated him and I hated you when you went away."
In the last verse he just reminisces his friend and don't hold anything against him because "We swore forever friends on the backstreets until the end. Hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets..."