I'll Work For Your Love

This might be the catchiest song Springsteen has ever written. My God, that melody....

I wish I could contribute some insight about the lyrics, but I'm a little lost. Obviously there's a comparison being drawn between love and salvation, but I'm not clear on the specific imagery, especially the part about "seven drops of blood."

Anybody?

Maybe this song is a song to Mother Theresa. I think it's a beautiful song. I like the verse

"Now our city of peace has been crumbled, our book of faith's been tossed. And I'm just out here searchin' for my own piece of the cross."

Maybe this song is a song to Mother Theresa. I think it's a beautiful song. I like the verse

"Now our city of peace has been crumbled, our book of faith's been tossed. And I'm just out here searchin' for my own piece of the cross."

Along with the theme of Magic, I take this song as social commentary. Theresa is a metaphor for Liberty.

Also, the 7 drops of blood may signify the injury to Liberty in the last 7 years.

Seven drops of blood refers to the seven occasions on which Jesus bled. The whole song has religious metaphors to it, the cross, crown of thorns, halos, temple of bones, revelations, book of faith. Unlike almost all the rest of the songs on Magic I feel this one may just be a love song, without broad reaching social meaning behind it.

This song could be a simple love song, but I think it really is spiritual.

I'd have to believe that the love Bruce is referring to is the love of god (Theresa playing the part of god), stating that he will work for it- something that, specifically in America, Christians have forgotten about. They want god's love for free and are not willing to work for it.

Pour me a drink Theresa in one of those glasses you dust off And I'll watch the bones in your back like the stations of the cross

Theresa (god) is working for our love, in the song as a waitress. He's watchig the bones in her back like the stations of the cross- she has worked her body to the core for our love just like jesus.

I could go into more detail but does anyone else interpret it like I am?

Plenty of possible origins for the image of the seven drops of blood.

In religious art the emblem of St. Catherine of Siena, an exposed heart with seven drops of blood symbolizing the Seven Virtues.

Scubadoo refers above to the seven occasions on which Jesus bled.

But I think there is also something in Jewish scripture relating to the Feast of Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement - something about seven drops of blood falling onto the throne of judgement.

However both blood and the number seven seem to have mystical significance in just about all religions and cults and if you simply google the phrase in quotation marks you'll find everything from horror films to medieval recipes for curing epilepsy.

And that is supposedly what afflicted the young man possessed by devils cured by Jesus. Go figure.

The Boss introduced it as a love song during his European tour. I like the interpretations on here but I think it is a very beautiful love song about an elderly couple.

Could this song be about an illicit affair that the character is having a married Theresa, maybe its her ring that slips off her finger, and all of the religious imagery present symbolizes the immorality of the actions despite their mutual love.