Bruce Springsteen – Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?

Under the Covers Tuesday will be back next week. 

This was originally posted at Dave’s Turntable Talk. This is what Dave asked for… Tell us about a song (or album if you’re more ambitious) you like that is all about going somewhere. Trains, planes, automobiles – there’ve been scores of good songs about traveling, geographically or even mentally, not to mention songs about specific destinations from ‘Viva Las Vegas’ to ‘One Night in Bangkok’ and about everyplace in between.

After Dave asked us to write a post about traveling… it was between Promise Land by the Big E and this one by Bruce. I had to go with this one.

This song is a journey through an enjoyable play of words. It was written about a bus journey to Bruce’s girlfriend’s house. This song was also based on people and places Springsteen met in his early years as a songwriter. His father was a bus driver for a time, which helped inspire the song.

I listened to it so many times that I know every word to this day. I was surprised to see that he still plays this in concert every now and then…but you can’t beat the studio version. 

I was around 19 (1986) or so when I found this album, or when the album found me, and I was going through an angry young man phase. I had just bought a 1976 Fender Musicmaster guitar (I still have it) and a black leather jacket so I was ready.  The imagery flows like water with Greetings From Ashbury Park, Bruce’s debut album in 1973… It’s not very polished but that adds to it.  The songs have a stream-of-consciousness feel to them. It was critically praised but did not have huge sales. The album only peaked at #60 in the Billboard Album Charts.

This album is my favorite by Springsteen. Yes, I like his other albums…but I love the wordplay on this one. I think the only song that halts the album is Mary Queen of Arkansas. I hear some Dylan and a very strong Van Morrison influence on this album and song. It is rough and raw and unpredictable.

Wizard imps and sweat sock pimps
Interstellar mongrel nymphs
Rex said that lady left him limp
Love’s like that (sure it is)

Songs like this helped give Springsteen the tag….” the new Dylan” and he was the one performer who actually lived up to it…strap in and ride the Springsteen-driven bus.

Does This Bus Stop At 52nd Street?

Hey bus driver, keep the change
Bless your children, give them names
Don’t trust men who walk with canes
Drink this and you’ll grow wings on your feet
Broadway Mary, Joan Fontaine
Advertiser on a downtown train
Christmas crier bustin’ cane
He’s in love again

Where dock worker’s dreams mix with panther’s schemes
To someday own the rodeo
Tainted women in VistaVision
Perform for out-of-state kids at the late show

Wizard imps and sweat sock pimps
Interstellar mongrel nymphs
Rex said that lady left him limp
Love’s like that (sure it is)
Queen of diamonds, ace of spades
Newly discovered lovers of the Everglades
They take out a full-page ad in the trades
To announce their arrival
And Mary Lou, she found out how to cope
She rides to heaven on a gyroscope
The Daily News asks her for the dope
She said, “Man, the dope’s that there’s still hope”

Senorita, Spanish rose
Wipes her eyes and blows her nose
Uptown in Harlem she throws a rose
To some lucky young matador

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, 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. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

64 thoughts on “Bruce Springsteen – Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?”

      4. I always type that wrong…Spirit IN the Night… I think I heard the Bruce version before I heard this album somewhere.

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    1. I didn’t think in a million years he would still do it…I then looked up on youtube and there it was.

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      2. There are so many songs on it that I like…Spirit In The Night, Growing Up, It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City…and more.

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      6. Thats how devoted his fans are…Fans now…are up on more than the aritist in some respects because of the internet. Bruce gives you your moneys worth and more live. I can see why you saw him so many times.
        My favorite clips of Springsteen are in London I believe in 1975.

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  7. Your personal back story and how you related it to the album was stellar. As mentioned above your line “how the album found me” is great. I was more of a ‘The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle’ album guy. I love that album, but it’s all Bruce so ‘horses for courses’ as they say. You have a lot of Bruce fans here given the above comments! Super.

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    1. I do like that album as well Matt. I think sometimes it’s when we hear something also. It holds a special place that only that song or album can hold. Artistically is this better than Born to Run? No…but it holds a place with me.

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      1. I couldn’t agree more about your ‘holds a special place’ comment. As I said it’s ‘horses for courses’ and depends on how songs have shaped your life; the memories that are evoked etc. Born to Run is undoubtedly my favourite album by him because as you described it ‘holds a place with me’, but funnily I probably listen to more music from his other albums and unreleased than I do from that one. Born to Run is more emblematic and theatrical in nature, but it’s the first that I fell in love with and still I regard the material is A1 quality and holds up still today.

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      2. The song that made me fall in love with Born to Run was Back Streets which I probably have told you before.
        Oh it’s close to a perfect album Matt.

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      3. Yeh, we conversed about that song in the article. Brilliant. The intro piano melody is one for the ages. I think Thunder Road was the first to floor me from the album. You mentioned ‘close to perfect’. After having heard it hundreds of times, my only gripe now would be that Jungleland feels a bit bloated and an overkill. But it’s still a great song.

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      4. As soon as he sang “Screen Door Slams” that song hooked me as well. We agree on Jungleland totally. Not one of my favorites from the album.

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      5. Screen Door Slams – Is there a better opening line? lol I was wondering what your take was on Jungleland. We are in cohoots on that one. Theatrically it’s great, but I think it hasn’t aged that well. If it was tighter, I might have been all for it. It was as though he was trying to try to go for too much on it. Did Dylan’s Tweeter come from that song?

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      6. Tweeter…you may be on to something. Bob having a little fun with Bruce. I think it would be fun if Bruce would covered Tweeter live…it really would.

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      8. It’s a good song and not really a put down. I heard a bootleg of Paul McCartney singing a vicious song (How Do You Sleep) Lennon wrote ABOUT McCartney lol…Paul had fun with it. But Bruce would do well with it.

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      9. Ah ok, I haven’t heard that song or know of the vitriol from the one to the other. I imagine there was a lot of angst, but love towards the other. It’s one of those things that can occur.
        To be honest, as much as I would love to hear Springsteen sing that song, he couldn’t shine a light on Bob’s version. That song has Bob written all over it despite it being a parody.

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      10. In the early seventies it was bad. One line “The only thing you done was Yesterday” since you’ve been gone your just “Another Day”….Another Day was McCartney’s first single by himself lol. They got a long after this song.
        Yea Bob owns that one.

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      11. I gather you are a Beatles fan haha. As much as I try, I just can’t find much intenseness and profoundness in their songs. I understand the hype and everything. Even ‘Yesterday’ which you mentioned which I sang at my year 12 farewell and have a photo. Do I want to hear that song again? Probably not.

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      12. I don’t want to hear Yesterday again either…but I don’t want to hear many hits from anyone again. It’s across the board with Dylan or Springsteen…The Stones and The Who….I am tired of the hits. If you notice I hardly ever post them.
        It’s just a matter of different taste.

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      13. Dylan and Springsteen; I can hear their tired hits again. No problem. That’s what I’m talking about and my major problem is their really big hits apart from the early stuff I have no proclivity to hear again. I agree on the taste.

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      14. Oh I can’t….If I hear Lay Lady Lay I’ll scream but Just Like Tom Thumb Blues oh yea! The Beatles just warm me inside man. Their melodies are second to none to me. After playing them I really fell for them becasue of the construction of them. But no one is for everyone!

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      15. Lay Lady Lay which I decide not to listen to often, is a huge hit to my ears when I do listen to it. Regarding the Beatles I don’t get anywhere near the same enjoyment as you described. But if it does it for you, that’s great! I was just writing about this in a post I just wrote about ‘Memories’ from Maroon 5. Nearly 1 billion views. Now if you compare the musical artistic quality of their song with Perri who wrote ‘Evergone’, to my mind the views are flipside. But it’s all tastes and of course due to commercial backing.

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      16. Yea the charts do nothing for me. There will be no more Who, Beatles, Stones, Dylans or anyone like that anymore because the records companies will only back images…they have a phobia against rock bands. Only indie labels back bands like Jeff has anymore…it’s sickening to me.
        The “bands” that make it usually do because of their GQ looks.
        Sorry for bitching but it depresses me.

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      17. Hi Max, I can fully appreciate your frustrations about the current circumstances regarding the music industry. It’s commensurate with Hollywood’s big blockbusters obsession. Don’t be sorry and I wouldn’t call that bitching. I had to laugh at GQ looks. I couldn’t agree more with all that you wrote Max.

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      19. I can’t disagree, but it’s just the way music and bands evolve with the times. Not to mention movies. It caters to a younger market and there’s not much we can do about it, except try to educate them about what is great art.

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      20. Yes it is…and commercials now. At one time you avoided having your songs in commercials…now it’s a way to get heard.

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      21. I hardly watch TV anymore. I don’t know about the commercials thing. But I did get to hear ‘Team’ from Lorde in ESPN promotions. Man, I love that song. So do the kids.
        The video is a bit hard core (weird), but just a great song in my opinion:

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  8. thanks for taking part in turntable Talk, Max! A great bit of wordplay that paints an impressionistic vision isn’t it? I may prefer his newer (and by that I mean stuff that may be as old as 1978) stuff but it’s good to hear some of his lesser-known material and see where he came from, so to speak. On a bus no less…

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    1. My pleasure Dave. It was a lot of fun. I like saving these for a while so people will half way forget about them lol.
      It’s different from his other stuff…kinda like Dylan’s word play albums iin the mid sixties and he never went back to that again.

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  12. I knew this tune by title only and need to revisit the album. I’m only well familiar with three other tracks because all were covered by Manfred Mann Earth Band in the ’70s, a group I frequently listened to during my teenage years: “Blinded By the Light”, “Spirit in the Night” and “For You.”

    It was a true revelation when I got Springsteen’s “Live 1975–85” compilation in 1986 and realized how many songs he had written or co-written, which for many years I had known by other artists. The biggest “shock” was “Fire”, which I had known and come to dig The Pointer Sisters. I also had not aware of Springsteen’s role in “Because the Night.” Naively, I had thought it was all Patti Smith’s song!

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    1. Spirit in the Night and Hard To Be A Saint in the City are great off this album. I only knew about Blinded By The Light. I never heard their version of Spirit in the Night.

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  13. I’m continually amazed at the amount of engagement and number of comments your posts get Max!

    I wasn’t familiar with this song, as I’ve never listened to the entire album (the only Springsteen album I own is “Born in the U.S.A.”), but I see what you mean when you say the songs have a stream-of-consciousness feel.

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      1. I think it’s partly due to the fact you generally write about songs from the 60s, 70s and 80s that many of our fellow bloggers – a lot of whom are in their late 40s to early 60s – know or remember from their youth. I, on the other hand, generally write about new music from mostly indie artists few have heard of or care about, though generous souls like you, Christian, Randy & Matt will often comment about if the song is to your liking.

        The other reason is that you’re always very outgoing and engaging, something I’m not always comfortable with.

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      2. Yes you are right about the eras we write about. A lot of memories are tied up in those older songs and that is what I get alot.

        In the next couple or so weeks I’m going to post one of my demos…so I’m going to be really interrested in those comments….bad or good.

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