Sex and the Springsteen Lyric

I was listening to Penn Jillette guest DJ on E Street Radio yesterday and, in one segment, he started talking about what he considered to be the sexiest line in a Bruce Springsteen song. I really have a hard time with these superlative comments…..the “ests” elude me, I guess. Maybe it reveals a lack of commitment on my part – I don’t know. I just find it hard to pick one definitive anything in life. And when we start talking about song lyrics, particularly when the library is as extensive as Springsteen’s, well – suffice to say…it ain’t gonna happen.

Anyway – I found the question interesting. Sexiest lyric….. It got me thinking about what I would choose if a gun were pointed at my head and I had to commit. Pretty tough – there are so many lyrics that make me weak, like:

The road is dark 
And it’s a thin thin line 
But I want you to know I’ll walk it for you any time 
Maybe your other boyfriends 
Couldn’t pass the test 
Well if you’re rough and ready for love 
Honey I’m tougher than the rest 

…and…

We said we’d walk together baby come what may 
That come the twilight should we lose our way 
If as we’re walking a hand should slip free 
I’ll wait for you 
And should I fall behind 
Wait for me

…and….

In the darkness my fingers slip across your skin 
I feel your sweet reply 
The room fades away and suddenly I’m way up high 
Just holdin’ you to me 
As through the window the moonlight streams 
Oh won’t you baby be in my book of dreams

…and…

Your sweet memory comes on the evenin’ wind
I sleep and dream of holding you in my arms again
The lights of Brownsville, across the river shine
A shout rings out and into the silty red river I dive
I long, my darling, for your kiss, for your sweet love I give God thanks
A touch of your loving fingertips
Meet me on the Matamoros banks

And there are so many scenarios that tug at my heart like the girl in the hair ribbon and the man wondering if he’s “the man for whom [she] put it there”, the  man desperate to know what he can do/what he can say because he doesn’t want to “fade away” and the other man lying on the riverbank with his girl, pulling her close “just to feel each breath [she takes].”

I realized, though, that these were all really more “romantic” than “sexy”.

I needed to find something a little more raw…a little less sweet….more dangerous…more edgy. Of course, there are lots there, like the blatant:

Hey little girl is your daddy home
Did he go away and leave you all alone
I got a bad desire
I’m on fire

Tell me now baby is he good to you
Can he do to you the things that I do
I can take you higher
I’m on fire

and the “come take a chance with me” of:

Well now I’m no hero
That’s understood
All the redemption I can offer girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now ?
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow
Back your hair
Well the night’s busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven’s waiting on down the tracks
Oh-oh come take my hand
We’re riding out tonight to case the promised land

That’s pretty sexy.

And what woman could resist the invitation to:

Just wrap your legs ’round these velvet rims
and strap your hands ‘cross my engines

It’s a tough call. I guess it just all comes down to what you consider to be sexy….

For my money, and with this gun pointed at my head, I’m going to go with “Drive All Night”. It’s got it all – all of the elements that give good “sexy” – love, loss, desire, desperation…(and shoes!)

Tonight there’s fallen angels and they’re waiting for us down in the street
Tonight there’s calling strangers, hear them crying in defeat.
Let them go, let them go, let them go do their dances of the dead (let ‘em go right ahead)
You just dry your eyes girl, and c’mon c’mon c’mon let’s go to bed, baby, baby, baby

I swear I’ll drive all night just to buy you some shoes
And to taste your tender charms
And I just wanna sleep tonight again in your arms

Cause you’ve got, you’ve got, you’ve got, you’ve got my love, you’ve got my love
Through the wind, through the rain, the snow, the wind, the rain
You’ve got, you’ve got my, my love heart and soul

So much of this has to do with the music though – the lyrics alone don’t do it. It’s the music and the way the lyrics are sung – how they come across. The saxophone doesn’t hurt either. Here’s a nice live version – with kind of a bonus “sexy” bit around the 5:47 mark….very nice.

Isn’t that ending nice? From about 8:53 on – “….just want to buy you some shoes….just want to buy you some shoes…. ” What woman doesn’t melt when she hears those words?

Penn Jillette picked these lyrics from Sherry Darling as the “sexiest” line in a Springsteen song:

Sherry we can run with our arms open before the tide
To all the girls down at Sacred Heart
And all you operators back in the Park
Say hey, hey, hey what you say Sherry Darlin’
Hey, hey, hey what you say Sherry Darlin’

Not sure I get it….and he didn’t really explain it very well. But I guess it’s a good lesson in perspective. We all see and feel things in different ways based on our life experiences, passions and the things that just make us tick. There must be something in there that speaks to him somehow.

So – Springsteen aside (or not) – what are some of the sexiest song lyrics to you?

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