An attractive young lady came into Buzzy’s Country Store last week, said hello and gave me the nicest wink I could ever hope for. Taken aback, it made me smile and immediately reminded me of the line from Bruce Springsteen’s Glory Days that talks about “in the wink of a young girl’s eye.” (The rest of the lyric goes “Glory days will pass you by in the wink of a young girl’s eye” which, depending on how you look at it, may or may not quite be the context that my visitor inspired in me. Regardless, I could relate to what Bruce was really talking about as it’s been a long time since a good looking lady, or for that matter, any kind of looking lady, has winked at me.)
But now that I think about it, when it comes to listing favorite song lyrics, I have a whole separate category of Brucisms. In addition to the “wink” quote, there is “Sooner or later it all comes down to money” from Big Muddy. Another goes “There are things that will knock you down you don’t even see coming” from When You’re Alone. And “Maybe baby, the gypsy lied” (2:55 mark below) from Brilliant Disguise in which Bruce describes what it’s like to be in a crappy marriage, something I can relate to also. (I tell folks that I was happily married to the first wife for 22 years but unfortunately I was married to her for 24 years.) Song below concludes with another great line “God have mercy on the man who doubts what he’s sure of.” (Click here for a website on Best Bruce lines.)
But my vote for the all time best and most relevant line from Bruce is from another of his crappy marriage tunes Tunnel of Love when he sings “You got to learn to live with what you can’t rise above.” True about a lot of things and not just a bad marriage.
Finally, here’s a tune of his that covers the waterfront, literally, on young girls, old loves and moving on from past relationships. It’s best verse goes “In just a glance, Down here on Magic Street, Love’s a fool’s dance, I ain’t got much sense but I still got my feet.” In fact, now that I think about it, the young lady who winked at me in the Store was also wearing a sundress.
