Something In the Night [Red Bank, Nj 76]

I think this is essentially a spiritual song.

Well, I'm drivin' down Kingsley, Figurin' I'll get a drink, Well, I turn the radio up loud, So I don't have to think'

He's depressed and aimless at the beginning of the song. His characters so often are. "So I don't have to think" could also symbolizes meditation, in meditation the goal is to silence one's thoughts. The song is spiritual, but he makes a song about common things like cars and radios and the spiritual stuff is often beneath the surface. His songs are filled with earthy images, cars, radios, drinking alcohol and his characters are often at the end of their rope. Springsteen comes from a traumatic background, because his father was a schizophrenic who couldn't hold a job.

I take to the floor, Lookin for a moment when the world seems right, And I tear into the guts, of something in the night

"Something in the night" is the divine, it is unknowable, a mystery. He's "torn into the guts" of "something in the night". Perhaps he's entered the divine. He leaves "something in the night" undefined, it's a mystery. So, he's gone from being aimless and depressed to entering the divine.

You're born with nothing and better off that way!

Bruce gets philosophical here. Spiritually, your born with nothing (no material possessions). He philosophizes that you're better off without possessions.

Soon as you got something They send someone to try to take it away!

We live in a dog-eat-dog world, if you have something, someone is going to try to take it from you!

You can ride this road 'till dawn, Without another human being in sight! Yeah, just kids wasted on, Something in the night!

Springsteen gets snobby here, he sees himself as the "only human being in sight" Everyone else he sees as "kids wasted on something in the night" I wonder if that went past his fans? "Something in the night" is still undefined, a mystery.

Nothing is forgotten or forgiven if it's your last time around! Springsteen continues in this vein of seeing himself from an elevated position--and guess what? He's getting away with it! Music and lyrics are gorgeous, passionate! "when it's your last time around!" He sees himself as a spiritually evolved being who's stepping off the wheel of birth and death, he's on the verge of becoming an enlightened Master, One with God!

I got stuff runnin' around my head that I can't live down! Now he's more vulnerable, more human again. He's not quite "there" yet. He's still not able to quieten the mind and achieve the mental silence that leads to spiritual awakening.

"We found the things we loved, They were crushed and dyin' in the dirt! We tried to pick up the pieces' And get away without getting hurt!"

Broken dreams, crushed ideals, so many Springsteen songs are about this type of thing.

But they caught us at the State line, Burned our cars in one last fight! And left us runnin' burned and blind, Chasin' somethin' in the night!

The characters in this part of the song have lost everything. Yet, they still have some kind of hope, they're still chasing "something in the night". A mystery, the divine, no one knows? They're just chasing something. So the song ends tragically, but perhaps with a ray of hope as they continue chasing "something in the night"