I was thinking the same, but I think it goes even deeper than having an affair. The dark side we all have manifests itself in many ways. Insecurity, addiction, depression, etc. I hear this guy as someone who doubts he is worthy of the gifts he has been given. He believes he has "stolen" an identity he feels he can not live up to. He has been living a lie for so long that he does'nt even believe he exists anymore. This is one of the best songs ever written by any artist - especially the Tracks version.
I was thinking the same, but I think it goes even deeper than having an affair. The dark side we all have manifests itself in many ways. Insecurity, addiction, depression, etc. I hear this guy as someone who doubts he is worthy of the gifts he has been given. He believes he has "stolen" an identity he feels he can not live up to. He has been living a lie for so long that he does'nt even believe he exists anymore. This is one of the best songs ever written by any artist - especially the Tracks version.
@stolencar51 yeah man, I like your interpretation or whatever you’d like to call it. I try to think of the age Bruce was when he wrote this: Thirty, with ideas of settling down, love etc, on his mind. I was very immature and slow to grow up; so I’m 52 now (Dealing with - or NOT dealing with, as it were - substance abuse, and the depression that comes with it, really had me doing nothing more than “treading water” for a long long time..say, roughly, 20 years, It feels/felt like I was standing still, emotionally) and I...
@stolencar51 yeah man, I like your interpretation or whatever you’d like to call it. I try to think of the age Bruce was when he wrote this: Thirty, with ideas of settling down, love etc, on his mind. I was very immature and slow to grow up; so I’m 52 now (Dealing with - or NOT dealing with, as it were - substance abuse, and the depression that comes with it, really had me doing nothing more than “treading water” for a long long time..say, roughly, 20 years, It feels/felt like I was standing still, emotionally) and I saw these songs in a different way when I was thirty. I was certainly not the adult Bruce was at 30. None of us reaches these points in our respective Lives at the same time, so I found it easy to hold myself in contempt, like I just didn’t Have it in me to not just BE a grownup, but to actually FEEL like one. Which I feel I am going thru right now, thank goodness, or I’d STILL feel like an “imposter”, a “stranger in my own life” as Sheryl Crow once wrote and sang…
These feelings Bruce is describing bring to my mind shades of The Doors’ People Are Strange, except that Bruce feels like he doesn’t belong ANYWHERE, it’s not just the other people who are “strange” - He finds himSELF strange, unfamiliar. He’s lost, wants to be “found”, wants someone to find Him, which is an awful place to be, when you can’t find yourSELF, no matter how hard you try.
In hindsight, I feel like it’ll all make sense to him, but “now” he can’t see the first for the trees
@stolencar51 Remember when musicians - and Bruce is one of the ones who always seemed to be able to use it to great effect - used to utilize the limitations of the popular Media (which, at the time The River was released would’ve been Vinyl/Cassette tape)? If you’re not sure what I’m saying, go look at the running orders of Born To Run and Darkness: Those two lps are sequenced in a way that presents the two sides of the album as mirror Images of each other. If you’re a Bruce fan from way back like I am, you already...
@stolencar51 Remember when musicians - and Bruce is one of the ones who always seemed to be able to use it to great effect - used to utilize the limitations of the popular Media (which, at the time The River was released would’ve been Vinyl/Cassette tape)? If you’re not sure what I’m saying, go look at the running orders of Born To Run and Darkness: Those two lps are sequenced in a way that presents the two sides of the album as mirror Images of each other. If you’re a Bruce fan from way back like I am, you already likely know what I’m talking about… The songs take on similar subject matter, but then they differ in some aspects, such as, How the narrator FEELS or, how he/she deals with the “problem(s)” presented by the song, or maybe they just differ In overall MOOD or FEEL. Doesn’t matter, what’s important is to just be aware that Bruce uses these tools to carry his message, and if you want to piece the puzzle together, he gives you the tools and hints. (One example, the most obvious, just in case I’m not communicating it well: Side 1 of Darkness begins with ‘Badlands’; side 2 starts with ‘The Promised Land’… Similar subject matter, however, ‘Badlands’ is more Determined, even ANGRY; ‘the Promised Land’ is more HOPEFUL. OK, one more example lol, Side 1 ends with ‘Racing In The Street’, in which a couple find themselves closed off from each other due to LIFE getting in the way, i.e., the narrator describes how he feels the need to Race (or whatever death-Defying behavior, paradoxically, manages to make him feel ALIVE), but his significant other can’t watch it, she feels like Something bad is about to happen to him, and that he’s tempting fate. So she just waits for him to make it home alive, but it eats at her. However, the narrator knows the relationship is shaky, and also knows they love each other - they’ve not lost ALL faith, not yet anyway - and are willing to at least TRY to keep it going with each other. The title track closes side 2/the album, and in ‘DOTEOT’, a similar relationship seems to have been involved in the song’s content, the important part being, it’s PAST TENSE, now the couple has already split, the female is off living in some hoity-toity life with some rich guy (“Now I hear she’s got a house up in Fairview, And a style she’s trying to maintain”). “Sliding Doors”-like, alternate universes taking place on the respective sides of the album…
Anyway, my point is, Stolen Car closes side 3 of the Double-LP The River; Wreck On the highway closes side 4/the entire album… in WOTH, Bruce’s narrator comes upon a car crash, finds a “Young man lying” there, gravely injured. The image of the young man - possibly a stand-in for Bruce himself - haunts him. He remembers the young man “crying, Mister, won’t you help me, please?”.
I think this song is about infidelity. The stolen car is a metaphor. He wants to get caught. This is the dark night of his soul.
I was thinking the same, but I think it goes even deeper than having an affair. The dark side we all have manifests itself in many ways. Insecurity, addiction, depression, etc. I hear this guy as someone who doubts he is worthy of the gifts he has been given. He believes he has "stolen" an identity he feels he can not live up to. He has been living a lie for so long that he does'nt even believe he exists anymore. This is one of the best songs ever written by any artist - especially the Tracks version.
I was thinking the same, but I think it goes even deeper than having an affair. The dark side we all have manifests itself in many ways. Insecurity, addiction, depression, etc. I hear this guy as someone who doubts he is worthy of the gifts he has been given. He believes he has "stolen" an identity he feels he can not live up to. He has been living a lie for so long that he does'nt even believe he exists anymore. This is one of the best songs ever written by any artist - especially the Tracks version.
@stolencar51 yeah man, I like your interpretation or whatever you’d like to call it. I try to think of the age Bruce was when he wrote this: Thirty, with ideas of settling down, love etc, on his mind. I was very immature and slow to grow up; so I’m 52 now (Dealing with - or NOT dealing with, as it were - substance abuse, and the depression that comes with it, really had me doing nothing more than “treading water” for a long long time..say, roughly, 20 years, It feels/felt like I was standing still, emotionally) and I...
@stolencar51 yeah man, I like your interpretation or whatever you’d like to call it. I try to think of the age Bruce was when he wrote this: Thirty, with ideas of settling down, love etc, on his mind. I was very immature and slow to grow up; so I’m 52 now (Dealing with - or NOT dealing with, as it were - substance abuse, and the depression that comes with it, really had me doing nothing more than “treading water” for a long long time..say, roughly, 20 years, It feels/felt like I was standing still, emotionally) and I saw these songs in a different way when I was thirty. I was certainly not the adult Bruce was at 30. None of us reaches these points in our respective Lives at the same time, so I found it easy to hold myself in contempt, like I just didn’t Have it in me to not just BE a grownup, but to actually FEEL like one. Which I feel I am going thru right now, thank goodness, or I’d STILL feel like an “imposter”, a “stranger in my own life” as Sheryl Crow once wrote and sang…
These feelings Bruce is describing bring to my mind shades of The Doors’ People Are Strange, except that Bruce feels like he doesn’t belong ANYWHERE, it’s not just the other people who are “strange” - He finds himSELF strange, unfamiliar. He’s lost, wants to be “found”, wants someone to find Him, which is an awful place to be, when you can’t find yourSELF, no matter how hard you try.
In hindsight, I feel like it’ll all make sense to him, but “now” he can’t see the first for the trees
@stolencar51 Remember when musicians - and Bruce is one of the ones who always seemed to be able to use it to great effect - used to utilize the limitations of the popular Media (which, at the time The River was released would’ve been Vinyl/Cassette tape)? If you’re not sure what I’m saying, go look at the running orders of Born To Run and Darkness: Those two lps are sequenced in a way that presents the two sides of the album as mirror Images of each other. If you’re a Bruce fan from way back like I am, you already...
@stolencar51 Remember when musicians - and Bruce is one of the ones who always seemed to be able to use it to great effect - used to utilize the limitations of the popular Media (which, at the time The River was released would’ve been Vinyl/Cassette tape)? If you’re not sure what I’m saying, go look at the running orders of Born To Run and Darkness: Those two lps are sequenced in a way that presents the two sides of the album as mirror Images of each other. If you’re a Bruce fan from way back like I am, you already likely know what I’m talking about… The songs take on similar subject matter, but then they differ in some aspects, such as, How the narrator FEELS or, how he/she deals with the “problem(s)” presented by the song, or maybe they just differ In overall MOOD or FEEL. Doesn’t matter, what’s important is to just be aware that Bruce uses these tools to carry his message, and if you want to piece the puzzle together, he gives you the tools and hints. (One example, the most obvious, just in case I’m not communicating it well: Side 1 of Darkness begins with ‘Badlands’; side 2 starts with ‘The Promised Land’… Similar subject matter, however, ‘Badlands’ is more Determined, even ANGRY; ‘the Promised Land’ is more HOPEFUL. OK, one more example lol, Side 1 ends with ‘Racing In The Street’, in which a couple find themselves closed off from each other due to LIFE getting in the way, i.e., the narrator describes how he feels the need to Race (or whatever death-Defying behavior, paradoxically, manages to make him feel ALIVE), but his significant other can’t watch it, she feels like Something bad is about to happen to him, and that he’s tempting fate. So she just waits for him to make it home alive, but it eats at her. However, the narrator knows the relationship is shaky, and also knows they love each other - they’ve not lost ALL faith, not yet anyway - and are willing to at least TRY to keep it going with each other. The title track closes side 2/the album, and in ‘DOTEOT’, a similar relationship seems to have been involved in the song’s content, the important part being, it’s PAST TENSE, now the couple has already split, the female is off living in some hoity-toity life with some rich guy (“Now I hear she’s got a house up in Fairview, And a style she’s trying to maintain”). “Sliding Doors”-like, alternate universes taking place on the respective sides of the album…
Anyway, my point is, Stolen Car closes side 3 of the Double-LP The River; Wreck On the highway closes side 4/the entire album… in WOTH, Bruce’s narrator comes upon a car crash, finds a “Young man lying” there, gravely injured. The image of the young man - possibly a stand-in for Bruce himself - haunts him. He remembers the young man “crying, Mister, won’t you help me, please?”.
You see where I’m going, right?