Joan Jett – Light of Day

Bruce Springsteen wrote this and gave it to filmmaker Paul Schrader for his 1987 movie starring Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett as a brother and sister who lead a garage band.

Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett performed this in the movie. The song was released as a single credited to “The Barbusters” the name of the group in the film.  The song is a duet with Fox and Jett, but the single was just Jett accompanied by her band, The Blackhearts.   

 Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played Hammond organ on this song.  Light Of Day peaked at #33 in the Billboard 100 in 1987.                                                                                                                                                                                  From Songfacts

This is one of Springsteen’s live favorites. He often performs an inspirational extended version, preaching lines like “I can not offer you eternal life, but I can offer you life right now.”

Bruce performed this at a 1992 concert for MTV. Part of their “Unplugged” series, Springsteen insisted on playing electric and calling it “Plugged.” The set was released as an album in England.

The title was used as the name of a benefit concert Springsteen played at The Stone Pony, a small club in New Jersey, in 2000. Proceeds went to The Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. Michael J. Fox, who starred in the movie Light Of Day, has Parkinson’s.

Springsteen performed this with Joan Jett at two benefit concerts in New Jersey in 2001. Proceeds from the shows went to victims of the September 11 attacks.

In 2000, the Light of Day foundation was formed, taking its name from this song. Music impresario Bob Benjamin started the foundation after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, with proceeds going toward the search for a cure. Benjamin organized a series of concerts to raise money, which proved very successful. Springsteen has performed at many of these events to lend his support.

Light Of Day

Well I’ve been out of the woods for six days and nights now
Well I’m a little hot wired, but I’m feeling alright
I got some money in my pocket and a long lean ride
I got to make it down to Galveston by Saturday night, now

Well I’m a little down under, but I’m feeling O.K.
Got a little lost along the way

I’m just around the corner to the light of day
Well, I’m just around the corner to the light of day

Been driving five hundred miles, got five hundred to go, yeah
I got rock and roll music on the radio
I got a brother on a rig just off the gulf coast
He says the girls down there, well they’re really the most, man

Well I’m a little down under, but I’m feeling O.K.
I got a little lost along the way

Just around the corner to the light of day
Just around the corner to the light of day
I’m just around the corner to the light of day
I’m just around the corner to the light of day

Well I got thrown out of work on the Kokomo
Don’t ask me what I’m doing, I don’t know
I hope he wasn’t joking when he wrote me that letter
Things can’t get any worse, they got to get better

Well I’m a little down under, but I’m feeling O.K.
I got a little lost along the way

I’m just around the corner to the light of day
Just around the corner to the light of day
Just around the corner to the light of day
Just around the corner to the light of day

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

26 thoughts on “Joan Jett – Light of Day”

  2. I actually heard this song not very long back on radio & didn’t know it…if I heard it back then, I’d forgotten it. Interesting story with it being a Springsteen tune and having Michael J fox on it. Have you seen the movie?
    By the way, off topic but while I think of it , how’s Bailey? Is he going back to school in person or doing online classes?

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    1. He starts back this week and they are going to to class but I think that will change… it depends on how things go…I don’t understand why they even take a chance. Just have the classes online well the ones you can.

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  3. I paid to see this at the movies back in time as Fox could do no wrong at the box office but this one fell flat as no one could take him as a rocker. JJ was the seal of the deal for me to go and see it.

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      3. She still rocks and has that voice. Nirvana reunited with her singing…she did really well.

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  9. Hell. My ass was at the movies to see this. It didn’t do well and, as I stated, above, neither did Bright Lights, Big City. Roughly five years later, after BL-BC, Phoebe Cates stopped acting.

    Fox was just trying to stretch his acting chops. He’d been Alex P. Keaton for so long, then Marty McFly, that he wanted something different. It essentially blew up in his face. His fans didn’t want him as a rocker or a coke addict. He looked lost in Casualties of War.

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  10. I think the film was originally supposed to be called Born in the USA and Schrader asked Springsteen to write the music for it. Bruce liked the title a lot and obviously used it for his own song but then wrote Light of Day for the movie. I have seen him perform this is concert and it was highlight of show!

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