No. 56

The River - Bruce Springsteen (1980) Video - I know many will think it odd that this track is 16 spots above Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A. didn't even make the list, but this isn't about what sold the most records, it's about the story it tells, the audience it speaks to, and how it relates to the listener. While it's not my story, it encapsulates so many others' stories that I can just imagine the feelings going through the construction worker as he hears his biggest idol sing about what it's like to be him. A lyrically-rich artist singing his best-written prose.

In this case, the river represents life and hope in one instance, but then serves as a reminder that his hopes and dreams have vanished in another. An interesting fact, of my Top 100 songs, 12 discuss water in some form or other, typically as a source of life (river) or a source of sadness (tears). Just thought that was interesting how closely water is tied to our emotions.

"I come from down in the valley where mister when you're young, they bring you up to do like your daddy done. Me and Mary we met in high school when she was just seventeen, wed ride out of that valley down to where the fields are green.

We'd go down to the river and into the river we'd dive, oh down to the river we'd ride.

Then I got Mary pregnant and man that was all she wrote. And for my nineteenth birthday, I got a union card and a wedding coat. We went down to the courthouse and the judge put it all to rest. No wedding day smiles, no walk down the aisles, no flowers, no wedding dress.

That night we went down to the river and into the river we'd dive on down to the river we did ride.

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown company, but lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy. Now all them things that seemed so important, well mister they vanished right into the air. Now I just act like I don't remember, Mary acts like she don't care.

But I remember us riding in my brother's car, her body tan and wet down at the reservoir. At night on them banks I'd lie awake and pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take, now those memories come back to haunt me, they haunt me like a curse. Is a dream a lie if it don't come true or is it something worse that sends me down to the river though I know the river is dry, my baby and I, oh down to the river we ride."