Stolen Car (Bruce Springsteen song)
"Stolen Car" | |
---|---|
Song by Bruce Springsteen | |
from the album The River | |
Released | October 1980 |
Recorded | January 1980 |
Studio | Power Station, New York City |
Genre | Rock |
Length | 3:54 |
Label | Columbia Records |
Songwriter(s) | Bruce Springsteen |
Producer(s) | Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt |
"Stolen Car" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. It was originally released on his fifth album, The River. The version released on The River was recorded at The Power Station in New York in January 1980.[1] An alternative version recorded in July 1979 was released on Tracks in 1998.
History
"Stolen Car" was written quickly and first recorded the day after "Hungry Heart.
The recording uses minimal backing, with soft
In 2015, Springsteen stated that he regards "Stolen Car," "Point Blank," "Independence Day" and the title track as being "the heart and soul" of The River album.[10] "Stolen Car" and another song from The River, "Drive All Night", played a key role in setting the tone of the 1997 film Cop Land.[11] It has been listed as one of the all-time great songs in Toby Creswell's "1001 songs" and as one of the 7500 most important songs from 1944 through 2000 by Bruce Pollock.[4]
Alternate version
An alternate version of the song exists that was released on the album This album was eventually scrapped and expanded to become the double album The River. In this process, "Stolen Car" was rerecorded in the version released on The River.
The version of the song on Tracks has additional verses and the instrumentation is not as dark as in the version released on The River.[7] In the final verse, the song's protagonist dreams of his wedding day and the joy and hope he felt but as he dreams of kissing his bride at the end of the ceremony he feels everything slip away again.[7] A subtle difference between this version and The River version is that whereas on The River version the singer fears he will disappear into the night, in this version he already has, like a ghost.[7] The lyrics of this version also include river imagery used in some other songs on The River, including the title track and "Hungry Heart". In this version of the song, the singer—or his ghost—surrenders to the river similarly to the boy in the Flannery O'Connor story "The River," whose "fury and fear left him" drowns in the river he was intending to baptize himself in.[2] Heylin referred to Springsteen replacing this version with the version released on The River as "an act of self-sabotage".[2]
Personnel
According to authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon:[16]
- Bruce Springsteen – vocals, guitar
- Roy Bittan – piano
- Danny Federici – organ
- Garry Tallent – bass
- Max Weinberg – drums
Covers
A cover version of "Stolen Car" was recorded by Patty Griffin for her 2002 album, 1000 Kisses.[17] Another cover version was also recorded by Elliott Murphy.[18] Owen recorded a slightly modified cover entitled "Stolen Bike" in 2006, released first on the Japanese edition of At Home with Owen. In 2018, X Ambassadors covered the song for Spotify.[19]
In popular culture
The song, along with "Drive All Night", are played by the protagonist in the film Cop Land.
During a flashback scene in the Cold Case episode "8 Years", the song briefly plays while two high school friends start stealing cars for money.
References
- ^ Brucebase, On The Tracks: The River
- ^ ISBN 9781780335797.
- ^ "Allmusic The River".
- ^ ISBN 1-56025-915-9.
- ^ ISBN 0-7119-5304-X.
- ^ ISBN 0-394-54668-7.
- ^ ISBN 9780825634703.
- ISBN 1578591570.
- ISBN 978-0275989385.
- ^ Zimny, Thom (2015). The Ties That Bind. HBO.
- ^ "Internet Movie Database Cop Land". IMDb.
- ^ Graff, The Ties That Bind, 379-380.
- ^ http://brucebase.wikidot.com/stats:The+River+-+Studio+Sessions Brucebase, On The Tracks: The River
- ^ Graff, The Ties That Bind, 304.
- ISBN 0-440-10694-X.
- ISBN 978-1-78472-649-2.
- ^ Graff, The Ties That Bind, 174.
- ^ Graff, The Ties That Bind, 244.
- ^ "X Ambassadors Cover on Spotify". Spotify. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
External links
- Lyrics & Audio clips from Brucespringsteen.net Archived 9 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine