Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town

General CommentIts no coincidence that this song ended side two, just as Racing in the Street ended side one. This song is a continuation of Racing In the Street, just a little further on down the road.

They're still racing out at the Trestles
But that blood it never burned in her veins

***In Racing, same girl

When I come home the house is dark
She sighs "Baby did you make it all right"

Now I hear she's got a house up in Fairview
And a style she's trying to maintain

***She has since left him for the promise of a better life with a more established man.

Well if she wants to see me
You can tell her that I'm easily found
Tell her there's a spot out 'neath Abram's Bridge
And tell her there's a darkness on the edge of town

*** I always took Abrams Bridge to be a spot where guys would meet up to duel in their race cars, as in "Brothers Under the Bridges 85"

"'Neath the trestless drinkin' the beer and the wine
Now some came on run, some just to pass the time
With the brothers under the bridges"

and

"Well me and my brother'd hitched a ride in Joey's pickup to the edge of town
And we watched from the tall grass as the challenges were made and the duels went down"

Everybody's got a secret Sonny
Something that they just can't face
Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it
They carry it with them every step that they take
Till some day they just cut it loose
Cut it loose or let it drag 'em down
Where no one asks any questions
Or looks too long in your face
In the darkness on the edge of town


In Racing, the singers partner was a guy named "Sonny", and here in the second verse, he is again speaking to Sonny. Notice that the name is capitalized in the official lyrics, as it would be for a proper name. I think that gets overlooked, it is a direct tie back to Racing. As to the secret, I think he is referring to issues everyone carries around with them. Whether it be insecurity, fear of rejection, failure, success, whatever. Bruce always writes from a personal perspective, and while the song may not necessarily be about him, his characters also have many of the same insecurities, and fears he does. This is no longer the romantic Born to Run phase, but Darkness is a record about the transition from young rebel stage into adulthood, and the struggles that go along with it. It is the realization that you can't just live Born to Run, there is a more permanent existence, and you will either rise above your issues or they will drag you down. The entire record is about that defiance to not just give up and be one of the faceless hordes going to work every day, and living a meaningless existence.

Some folks are born into a good life
Other folks get it anyway anyhow
I lost my money and I lost my wife
Them things don't seem to matter much to me now
Tonight I'll be on that hill 'cause I can't stop
I'll be on that hill with everything I got
Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost
I'll be there on time and I'll pay the cost
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town

Again Bruce is writing about the things he has seen. Its not necessarily from a point of being bitter, it's just he grew up in a working class suburb of NJ, and has seen that for some people they are born into a good life, and some others may do whatever they have to to get it, lie cheat steal, or being pretty enough to get that life, whatever. The last few verses is that defiance showing through, like an old Black and white movie where the hero rises up against all odds, and does the impossible, with no apologies.It's meant as a moment of triumph, just as:

I wanna find one face that ain't looking through me
I wanna find one place, I wanna spit in the face of these.. Badlands

or

There's a dark cloud rising on the desert floor
I've packed my bags and I'm headed straight through the storm
It's gonna be a twister that'll blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground.

It is a bold statement, a desperate cry against the life he so does not want to settle for.

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  @chrisg19
  +1

  @chrisg19 about your opening statement - not only is this similar to RITS, the 2 Lp sides were meant to mirror each other (Born To Run was sequenced in a similar way), with slightly different takes on a similar subject: (these are very rough, incomplete sketches, or I'd go on endlessly):
  
  Badland/The Promised Land: finding strength from to carry on within your self, in the face of life's struggles.
  
  Adam Raised A Cain/Factory: about his father, and trying to understand more about what makes him the way he is.
  
  Something in The Night/Streets Of Fire: How the course of life can make you feel alone, hopeless, "Me against the world".
  
  Candy's Room/Prove It All Night: finding meaning in love/lust/sex. "Us Against the World".
  
  Racing In The Street/Darkness On The Edge of Town: The things we do to make us feel more alive, which a lover/wife/girlfriend doesn't une'er stand, possibly because it amounts to flirting with death.

  Flag force263on July 08, 2017