*** Welcome to piglix ***

Spirit in the Night

"Spirit in the Night"
Spirit in the Night label.jpg
Single by Bruce Springsteen
from the album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
B-side "For You"
Released May 1973
Recorded August–September 1972
914 Sound Studios, Blauvelt, New York
Genre Rock
Length 5:00
Label Columbia
Writer(s) Bruce Springsteen
Producer(s) Mike Appel, Jim Cretecos
Bruce Springsteen singles chronology
"Blinded by the Light"
(1973)
"Spirit in the Night"
(1973)
"Born to Run"
(1975)
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. track listing

Side one

  1. "Blinded by the Light"
  2. "Growin' Up"
  3. "Mary Queen of Arkansas"
  4. "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?"
  5. "Lost in the Flood"

Side two

  1. "The Angel"
  2. "For You"
  3. "Spirit in the Night"
  4. "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City"
"Spirits in the Night"
Single by Manfred Mann's Earth Band
from the album Nightingales and Bombers
B-side "As Above So Below Part 2"
Released July 1975
Format 7"
Recorded 1975 at The Workhouse, London
Genre Progressive rock
Length

6:27 (album version)

3:15 (single edit)
Label Bronze Records
Writer(s) Bruce Springsteen
Producer(s) Manfred Mann and the Earth Band
Manfred Mann's Earth Band singles chronology
"Be Not Too Hard" "Spirits in the Night"
(1975)
"Blinded by the Light"
(1976)
Nightingales and Bombers track listing
"Spirits in the Night"
(1)
"Countdown"
(2)

Side one

Side two

6:27 (album version)

"Spirit in the Night" is a song written and originally recorded by New Jersey-based singer/songwriter Bruce Springsteen for his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973). It was also the second single released from the album. A cover version performed by Manfred Mann's Earth Band was released on the album Nightingales and Bombers and as a Top 40 single.

The original version of "Spirit in the Night" was released on Bruce Springsteen's debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. It was one of the last songs to be written and recorded for the release. Springsteen had recorded 10 other tracks for the album, but Clive Davis, president of the record label that was releasing the album, was concerned that the recorded tracks did not have enough commercial appeal. As a result, Springsteen quickly wrote and recorded two additional songs: "Spirit in the Night" and "Blinded by the Light". Because these songs were added so late in the recording process, several of Springsteen's band members were unavailable to record these two songs. As a result, the recording lineup for "Spirit in the Night" was limited to Vini Lopez on drums, Clarence Clemons on saxophone, and Springsteen himself playing all other instruments. Although "Spirit in the Night" was one of the last songs written for the album, it did grow out of an earlier version of the song that Springsteen had played live prior to receiving his recording contract.

Although most of the songs on Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. were packed with lyrics to the extent that sometimes they overwhelm the musical arrangements, "Spirit in the Night" has been described as the one song on the album on which the music and narrative fit together. Clemons' sax playing and Lopez' drumming match the freedom and ebullience described in the lyrics. The lyrics themselves describe a group of teenagers — Wild Billy, Hazy Davy, Crazy Janey, Killer Joe, G-Man and Mission Man, who is the person in the song telling the story — going to a spot called "Greasy Lake" near "Route 88" for a night of freedom, sex, and drinking. But although their escape to the freedom of Greasy Lake is short lived, the emphasis is on the friends' togetherness.


...
Wikipedia

...