Epic poetry: The Bruce Springsteen song Julien Baker said has “everything you need”

The late 2010s saw the rise of some powerfully poetic women wielding guitars as weapons of emotional destruction. At the centre of that movement is a little-known trio called Boygenius, made up of the skeleton-costumed Phoebe Bridgers, indie folk icon Lucy Dacus, and poetic post-rocker Julien Baker. Alongside their shared love for melodies and melancholy, the band all harbour a real love for one artist in particular, Bruce Springsteen.

The Boss’ classic tales of Americana may seem like a far cry from Boygenius’ more modern offerings, but the band share a real penchant for poetry with Springsteen. Bridgers once shared her obsession with his 1982 record Nebraska, while Dacus was introduced to Springsteen in her youth by her father. Though she initially rebelled against her dad’s tastes, she eventually came around to the Boss.

Baker is also a huge fan of Springsteen. In fact, she once suggested that if she was stranded on an island with just one song to accompany her, she would pick out the songwriter’s epic 1975 offering, ‘Jungleland’. Speaking with The Line of Best Fit, Baker gushed over the dynamics of the song and suggested that it had “everything you need”.

“A fast part,” she explained, “A slow part, a piano solo in a different key with a Clarence Clemons sax solo over it and it’s eight minutes long.” The track certainly would be enough to keep you occupied on a deserted island. After starting out with dramatic strings and keys, it gradually builds to a classic Springsteen rocker before fading into euphoric soaring saxophones.

Instrumentally, it’s full of twists and turns, but Baker was just as taken by Springsteen’s lyricism on the track. “I think the thing people maybe miss about Bruce Springsteen is his poetry,” she added, noting that people often praise him for his lengthy gigs and guitar prowess while overlooking his talent with a pen.

But Baker first encountered the tune when her teacher read it aloud in class, leading the students to believe it was a poem before revealing that it was actually a Springsteen tune. It’s easy to see why a young Baker and her classmates believed it to be the work of a poet. Springsteen stretches his poetic wings over the lengthy runtime, weaving gorgeous imagery into his masterful storytelling.

The tune tells the tale of the Magic Rat and a barefoot girl who roam around the city, taking stabs at romance and dodging the police. “Outside the street’s on fire in a real death waltz,” the final verse begins, “Between what’s flesh and what’s fantasy, and the poets down here don’t write nothing at all.” It’s easy to imagine those words printed on the page of a poetry anthology rather than blaring through the speakers of an arena.

Between the ever-changing instrumentation and the dense storytelling embedded into Springsteen’s lyricism, there’s enough material to pore over in between time spent starting fires and digging SOS symbols into the sand. It’s also easy to see how the early influence of her teacher, showing Baker that songs can be their own form of poetry, maintained an influence on her own creations. In her solo work and with Boygenius, poetry always seems to take priority.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *