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Bruce Springsteen - Backstreets (live, 2012)

"Backstreets" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from the album Born to Run, which was released in 1975. In the original vinyl release, it concludes side one of the record.

"Backstreets" has been interpreted as a narrative about a homosexual relationship, since the name Terry is sexually ambiguous.

It has also been said to potentially represent a platonic but intense friendship between two men that has faded.

However, listening to any of the numerous bootleg versions of "Backstreets" from the 1978 "Darkness on the Edge of Town" tour, Terry is repeatedly referred to as "she" and "little girl," confirming that Terry is indeed a woman.

Another interpretation is that it is about Springsteen's relationship with his early 70s girlfriend Diane Lozito.

The melody and organ bear some resemblance to "Positively 4th Street" by Bob Dylan, an influence of Springsteen's. Rolling Stone Magazine claims that it echoes mid-60s Dylan, especially the organ part reminiscent of Blonde on Blonde.

Rolling Stone Magazine rated "Backstreets" to be the 7th greatest Springsteen song of all time.

The lyrics:

One soft infested summer me and Terry became friends

Trying in vain to breathe the fire we was born in

Catching rides to the outskirts tying faith between our teeth

Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house getting wasted in the heat

And hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets

With a love so hard and filled with defeat

Running for our lives at night on them backstreets

Slow dancing in the dark on the beach at Stockton's Wing

Where desperate lovers park we sat with the last of the Duke Street Kings

Huddled in our cars waiting for the bells that ring

In the deep heart of the night we cut loose from everything

to go running on the backstreets, running on the backstreets

Terry, we swore we'd live forever, takin' on them backstreets together.

Endless juke joints and Valentino drag where dancers scraped the tears up off the streets dressed down in rags

Running into the darkness, some hurt bad, some really dying

At night sometimes it seemed you could hear the whole damn city crying

Blame it on the lies that killed us

Blame it on the truth that ran us down

You can blame it all on me Terry

It don't matter to me now

When the breakdown hit at midnight

There was nothing left to say but I hated him and I hated you when you went away

Laying here in the dark you're like an angel on my chest

Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness

Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see

Trying to learn how to walk like heroes we thought we had to be

And after all this time to find we're just like all the rest

Stranded in the park and forced to confess

To hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets

We swore forever friends on the backstreets until the end.

Hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets