Downbound Train

About Downbound Train

"Downbound Train" is a song that appears on the 1984 Bruce Springsteen album Born in the U. S. A. The song is a lament to a lost spouse, and takes on a melancholy tone. Author Christopher Sandford described the song as beginning "like a Keith Richards' riff" that ultimately moves to "one of those great country busted-heart lines, 'Now I work down at the car wash/where all it ever does is rain.'"The song was recorded on May 6, 1982 at the Power Station at the end of the "Electric Nebraska" sessions. Like several other Born in the U. S. A. songs, including "Working on the Highway" and the title track, a solo acoustic version of "Downbound Train" was originally recorded on the demo that eventually became the Nebraska album. "Downbound Train" is one of the few tracks that was successfully recorded at the "Electric Nebraska" sessions. Though it was not one of the seven singles released from the album, the song nevertheless gained some album-oriented rock radio airplay and was featured fairly regularly on the Born in the U. S. A. Tour. It has been performed sporadically in tours since. Overall, the song has been played in concert about 130 times through 2008. Author Robert Kirkpatrick contended that "Downbound Train" "might be the best song on the album", and Debby Bull called it "the saddest song [Springsteen]'s ever written." But Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh, writing in Glory Days, did not agree, calling "Downbound Train" "the weakest song [Springsteen]'s released since the second album, ... incredibly sloppy ... The protagonist's three jobs in five verses are only symptomatic of its problems." Other observers analysed it in retrospect as a harbinger, with naturalistic imagery lacing the song throughout in an approach that Springsteen would return to heavily in his Dylan-"Series of Dreams"-influenced early 1990s. more »

Year:

2010

3:37

228 Views

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I had a job, I had a girl
I had something going, mister, in this world
I got laid off down at the lumber yard
Our love went bad, times got hard
Now I work down at the car wash
Where all it ever does is rain
Don't you feel like you're a rider on a downbound train

She just said, "Joe, I gotta go
We had it once, we ain't got it anymore"
She packed her bags, left me behind
She bought a ticket on the Central Line
Nights as I sleep, I hear that whistle whining
I feel her kiss in the misty rain
And I feel like I'm a rider on a downbound train

Last night I heard your voice
You were crying, crying, you were so alone
You said your love had never died
You were waiting for me at home
Put on my jacket, I ran through the woods
I ran till I thought my chest would explode
There in the clearing, beyond the highway
In the moonlight, our wedding house shone
I rushed through the yard
I burst through the front door, my head pounding hard
Up the stairs I climbed
The room was dark, our bed was empty
Then I heard that long whistle whine
And I dropped to my knees, hung my head and cried
Now I swing a sledge hammer on a railroad gang
Knocking down them cross ties, working in the rain
Now, don't it feel like you're a rider on a downbound train

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Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss", is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey and his lengthy and energetic stage performances, with concerts from the 1970s to the present decade running up to an uninterrupted 250 minutes in length. more »

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