I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
There's a wonderful world where all you desire
And everything you've longed for is at your fingertips
Where the bittersweet taste of life is at your lips
Where aisles and aisles of dreams await you
And the cool promise of ecstasy fills the air
At the end of each working day she's waiting there
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
As the evening sky turns blue
A dream awaits in aisle number two
With my shopping cart I move through the heart
Of a sea of fools so blissfully unaware
That they're in the presence of something wonderful and rare
The way she moves behind the counter
Beneath her white apron her secret remains hers
As she bags the groceries her eyes so bored
And sure she's unobserved
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
There's nothing I can say
Each night I take my groceries and I drift away
And I drift away
Items from my ???
At night I pray for the strength to tell her
When I love I love I love I love her so
Take my place in the check-out line
For one moment her eyes meet mine
I'm lifted up, lifted up, lifted up, lifted up
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
Though her company cap covers her hair
Nothing can hide the beauty waiting there
The beauty waiting there
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
As I lift my groceries in to my car
I turn back for a moment and catch a smile
That blows this whole fucking place apart
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
And everything you've longed for is at your fingertips
Where the bittersweet taste of life is at your lips
Where aisles and aisles of dreams await you
And the cool promise of ecstasy fills the air
At the end of each working day she's waiting there
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
As the evening sky turns blue
A dream awaits in aisle number two
With my shopping cart I move through the heart
Of a sea of fools so blissfully unaware
That they're in the presence of something wonderful and rare
The way she moves behind the counter
Beneath her white apron her secret remains hers
As she bags the groceries her eyes so bored
And sure she's unobserved
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
There's nothing I can say
Each night I take my groceries and I drift away
And I drift away
Items from my ???
At night I pray for the strength to tell her
When I love I love I love I love her so
Take my place in the check-out line
For one moment her eyes meet mine
I'm lifted up, lifted up, lifted up, lifted up
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
Though her company cap covers her hair
Nothing can hide the beauty waiting there
The beauty waiting there
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
As I lift my groceries in to my car
I turn back for a moment and catch a smile
That blows this whole fucking place apart
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
I'm in love with the Queen of the Supermarket
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Wow what a song. It rises from a seemingly mundane beginning through a melody which will just not leave your head to the line
"As I lift my groceries in to my car I turn back for a moment and catch a smile That blows this whole fucking place apart"
which is incredibly unexpected and gives so much extra resonance to the infatuation.
Personally, I feel that only men of a certain age can truly understand what Bruce is getting at here. It's about more than unrequited love - it's about the role of supermarkets for singles rendezvous, and about you settle in to looking for friendship, love and inspiration within your own narrow band of daily experience.
A lovely song.
I've read that some critics have bashed this as his worst song ever. I truly feel bad for those who believe that. They don't get it. Its about those people you see in your life, the ones who you truly and deeply love them just from that first glance. A woman so beautiful that she's immaculate in your eyes. You're secretly in love with people like this. You see them in your everyday lives, in the Supermarket apparently for Mr Springsteen, and they make your day just a little better. You probably will never really know them, and you only talk over trivial things, but they do make your day better and you look forward to seeing them again.
I don't see why people think this is his worst song. It's a great song. It's just about how someone in your day-to-day life can go pretty much un-noticed, but when you notice them, you're blown away. It's a great song with a great story. My personal favorite off Working On A Dream, along with the title track.
I agree that it gets some undeserved criticism. Sure, it's a little silly, and the lyrics aren't exactly graceful, but I don't think that necessarily has to be a strike against it.<br /> <br /> The song is about a guy with a crush on a cashier at his local supermarket, it's a a very ordinary situation, more than a little mundane, maybe even a little silly, but no less powerful because of it.<br /> <br /> It's about something extraordinary inside of the ordinary, about how something so unremarkable can seem so beautiful, and I think the lyrics fit that theme perfectly. Almost as if the song is being narrated by an everyday guy, someone who clearly feels very strongly for this woman but doesn't quite have the ability to put his feelings into words the way he would like to :)<br /> <br /> I don't know if it was intentionally written that way, but it's the way I've always seen it. It's still far from the best song he's written, but I kind of like it, it's definitely the most interesting track on Working on a Dream.
I have to say I'm amazed I'm the first one commenting here, but, oh well.
This is really a departure from a lot of other Springsteen unrequited love songs in its dreamlike arrangement. There's also a lack of road-car-anomie-escape in this one. What we have seems to be a very mundane situation but with Bruce, it's really anything but. This is really such a beautiful song but also it speaks to the whole idea that the woman of your dreams might be wearing a company cap in a supermarket. It reminds me of the lyric from "Crush on You" --
"Well now she might be the talk of high society She's probably got a lousy personality She might be a heiress to Rockefeller She might be a waitress or a bank teller"
And that's what I take away from this song. We find true love in the most unlikely places. It's almost a dream sequence song but ends up with an almost trademark 'reason to believe:'
"As I lift my groceries in to my car I turn back for a moment and catch a smile That blows this whole fucking place apart"
That saves the song from terminally sappy which, in this case, Bruce went up to the line but didn't quite cross it.
Too bad about the F bomb in this case - unless dubbed it will never be on commercial radio. And that's a shame.
In retrospect, this is my favorite song on the CD which, generally, I was disappointed with. "Magic" was so much better - maybe the Boss should have waited and worked a little longer before releasing "Working on a Dream." It reminds me too much of "Lucky Town."
Can’t get over it. Not in a good way. Watching the DVD made me like this song for a few minutes...but just a few. If anyone could pull off a song about a supermarket, it would be The Boss...BUT it is still very difficult. Lyrics that should never be included in a song:
A dream awaits in aisle number two…
As she bags the groceries her eyes so bored …
Each night I take my groceries and I drift away…
Take my place in the check-out line …
Good for some laughs, but he can’t expect us to take this song seriously (and I think he does, hah) How can you with a song that ends with the beep of a supermarket scanner? Sorry Bruce, but you aren’t 16 years old anymore longing for that cute cashier (or at least i hope not). This is my favorite song about a food store ever, but still, not good.
Bruce likes to write in metaphors. One of his most well known metaphors is driving a car. Bruce uses this as a metaphor for making love. For example in his song "Drive All Night" it is not about going driving all night long, it is about making love all night long. Likewise when the protagonist goes driving a stolen car in the "Stolen Car" song, it is actually a metaphor for having sex with somebody that is not your significant other. Bruce has also a song called "Pink Cadillac". The pink Cadillac is here a metaphor for something that all women have and what all normal men want, so now you understand what driving a pink Cadillac is all about.
Anyway, let's think what the song "Queen of the Supermarket" is all about. The supermarket here is a metaphor for life itself. Then the queen of the supermarket is obvious. She is the love of your life. She is the one that you have spent most of your life with. The aisles and aisles of dreams are life episodes that you look back on. This song is about your mortality and about a sentimental longing for the past. The whole album "Working on a Dream" is about this. We can all relate to this. We are all going to grow old.
This is the largest blemish on Mr. Springsteen's resume. This isn't just the worst Springsteen song. It may actually be the worst song in the history of recorded music.
This is not the same guy who wrote "Roulette".