Backstreets - Bruce Springsteen (Lyrics)

BACKSTREETS is a song written by Bruce Springsteen and released on his 1975 album Born To Run.
Four studio takes of BACKSTREETS are in circulation. The lyrics variations between one version and the other indicate that the song was still a work in progress at the time it was being cut in studio.
Bruce Springsteen plays guitar and sings vocals on this track, and is backed by Garry Tallent on bass guitar, Max Weinberg on drums, and Roy Bittan on piano and organ.
BACKSTREETS was a candidate title track for Born To Run, as evidenced in a Springsteen handwritten list titled "Album #3 Titles". The list most probably dates from 1974.
BACKSTREETS appears on an early Springsteen handwritten list of proposed tracks for his third studio album. The list is titled "Album #3" and contains 12 tracks with their recording times. Springsteen listed "Backstreets" as the second track with a running time of 6:00.
On the Born To Run album, BACKSTREETS was already six-and-a-half minute long, but in 1976, 1977, and 1978, the live performances of the song were extended with an interlude that is commonly known as the "Sad Eyes" interlude, a title probably assigned to it by bootleggers. Note that this interlude has nothing to do with SAD EYES, the 1990 outtake that was released on the Tracks box set in 1998.
"Sad Eyes" is a mostly soft-piano based monologue toward the end of the song. It gradually rises in tempo before it suddenly stops and the "Hiding on the backstreets" coda kicks back in full band.
The "Sad Eyes" interlude debuted in September 1976 and disappeared with the end of the Darkness On The Edge Of Tour. It evolved through those three years to later be used as the basis for part of DRIVE ALL NIGHT on The River album in 1980.

Backstreets Magazine, a quarterly Bruce Springsteen fanzine, has been covering the music of Bruce Springsteen and Jersey Shore artists since 1980. The print began in 1980 when Seattle-based Springsteen fan Charles R. Cross printed 10,000 copies of a 4-page tabloid he called "Backstreets". He passed it out for free at Bruce's 24 Oct 1980 show at the Seattle Coliseum, Seattle, WA. Most copies of this first issue wound up trampled under foot, soaking in puddles by the end of the night; original copies of this three-color premiere issue now sell for three figures.
Backstreets became an uninterrupted run of quarterly publishing and is a Music Journalism Award winner for Best Fanzine. From its 4-page debut, Backstreets grew slowly, but after nine issues on newsprint, it switched to the magazine format with issue #10, adding slick paper and full-color covers soon after.
Current Publisher and Editor Christopher Phillips moved to Seattle in 1993 and began working with Charles R. Cross at Backstreets on issue #44, became Managing Editor in 1994, developed the Backstreets website in 1995, and took the reins in 1998. After a couple more years in Seattle, Phillips moved Backstreets to the East coast in 2000, with the magazine and website headquarters now based in Chapel Hill, NC.

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[markw]

I remember cruising the streets of my hometown on a Friday night, in my 1964 Chevy Impala SS listening to this on the 8 track tape player. This is his best album by far in his very lengthy career. Such heart and soul, and definitely a story from a big part of his life. So sorry to see him bring politics into his concerts. Talent wasted!!!!

[jorgejohnson]

6:13 Good presentation until this point.