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Well, I came to your house the other day
Your mother said you went away
She said there was nothing that I could have done
There was nothing nobody could say
Me and you, we've known each other ever since we were sixteen
I wished I could have known
I wished I could have called you
Just to say goodbye, Bobby Jean
Now, you hung with me when all the others
Turned away, turned up their nose
We liked the same music, we liked the same bands
We liked the same clothes
We told each other that we were the wildest
The wildest things we'd ever seen
Now I wished you would have told me
I wished I could have talked to you
Just to say goodbye, Bobby Jean
Now, we went walking in the rain, talking
About the pain that from the world we hid
Now there ain't nobody, nowhere, nohow
Gonna ever understand me the way you did
Maybe you'll be out there on that road
Somewhere in some bus or train
Traveling along in some motel room
There'll be a radio playing and you'll hear me sing this song
Well, if you do, you'll know I'm thinking of you
And all the miles in between
And I'm just calling you one last time
Not to change your mind, but just to say I miss you, baby
Good luck, goodbye, Bobby Jean
Your mother said you went away
She said there was nothing that I could have done
There was nothing nobody could say
Me and you, we've known each other ever since we were sixteen
I wished I could have known
I wished I could have called you
Just to say goodbye, Bobby Jean
Now, you hung with me when all the others
Turned away, turned up their nose
We liked the same music, we liked the same bands
We liked the same clothes
We told each other that we were the wildest
The wildest things we'd ever seen
Now I wished you would have told me
I wished I could have talked to you
Just to say goodbye, Bobby Jean
Now, we went walking in the rain, talking
About the pain that from the world we hid
Now there ain't nobody, nowhere, nohow
Gonna ever understand me the way you did
Maybe you'll be out there on that road
Somewhere in some bus or train
Traveling along in some motel room
There'll be a radio playing and you'll hear me sing this song
Well, if you do, you'll know I'm thinking of you
And all the miles in between
And I'm just calling you one last time
Not to change your mind, but just to say I miss you, baby
Good luck, goodbye, Bobby Jean
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a couple of problems. Bruce is born on the 23rd of September 1949, and Steven on the
22nd of November 1950, so they couldn't be seventeen at the same time. Bruce knew Steven in 1968, when Bruce was 19 and Steven 18. I also observed that the song seems to be sad, maybe too sad for a simple change of guitarist (in fact Steven came back to E Street Band in 1999). The charm of "Bobby Jean" comes from the ambiguity of the lyrics, because it does not leave out if the protagonist is a man or woman, and whether alive or dead. Maybe Bruce wanted to be ironic, and also wanted to take advantage of the great success of Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean". It's an example of the advertising technique to confuse a new product with another widespread. The same idea came later to David Bowie, who released in September 1984 the song "blue jean". In 2006 Fatboy Slim resurrected the idea, recording "that old pair of jeans". Money does not stink.
Not to change your mind, but just to say I miss you, baby
Good luck, goodbye, Bobby Jean
For me these are the most important and poignant lyrics, so sad
He can except that hes leaving but he just wants to say good luck, amazing how Springsteen can pull at the listeners heart strings.
The B7/9 is in the verses, I'd say it's the best chord in there.