Bobby Jean
| "Bobby Jean" | ||||||||||||
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| Song by Bruce Springsteen from the album Born in the U.S.A. | ||||||||||||
| Released | June 4, 1984 | |||||||||||
| Recorded | Late 1983 at The Hit Factory in New York | |||||||||||
| Genre | Rock | |||||||||||
| Length | 3:46 | |||||||||||
| Label | Columbia | |||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Bruce Springsteen | |||||||||||
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| 12 tracks |
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"Bobby Jean" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen, from his 1984 album Born in the U.S.A. Although not released as a single, it reached #36 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
"Bobby Jean" was one of the last songs from the album to be recorded, and was considered a musical breakthrough for Springsteen during the recording, with its more accented rhythm and near dance groove.
The title character's name is somewhat gender ambiguous, allowing for various interpretations. Nonetheless, "Bobby Jean" is often considered to have been written about his long-time friendship with Steve Van Zandt, who was leaving the E Street Band at the time: for example, Swedish journalist Richard Ohlsson made the interpretation in his book Bruce Springsteen: 16 Album that the title contained both a male and a female name because "the friendship with Bobby Jean is so strong that it's almost a kind of love." When this song is played live with the E Street Band, close ups of Van Zandt are often shown on the bigscreens.
The lyric turns to deeper emotions, which Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh characterized as "lines that mingle love, grief, and rancor", with the chorus summing:
At the conclusion, Springsteen imagines the song's subject hearing the very song in a motel room, as Roy Bittan's piano riff that drives the song yields to a saxophone coda from Clarence Clemons and the recording fades out. Marsh suggests that Springsteen was not singing a farewell just to Van Zandt, but also to his own depressed Nebraska self. Nevertheless, use of minor to major altered chord in the last parts of the chorus lend the song a spirit of generosity.
The song has become one of Bruce Springsteen's more popular concert staples, with about 596 performances through 2013.
During the 1984-85 Born in the U.S.A. Tour, "Bobby Jean" appeared frequently throughout the shows with a loud audience response, during the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express, the song generally appeared first to last; though by the 1992-93 "Other Band" Tour, "Bobby Jean" was not heard during concerts. By the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, the song was suddenly turned into a short four-minute performance with only Springsteen doing his opening on harmonica and acoustic guitar. It remained to have several performances on the Reunion Tour and only several times on The Rising Tour.
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Wikipedia