Streets of Fire

With a Bruce Springsteen song called "Streets Of Fire" you might expect muscle cars and adventures on the open road. But there are no cars, girls, or even hope in this song, which finds Bruce walking the streets, broken and dejected. It's pretty bleak, but it's in line with his concept for the Darkness On The Edge Of Town album, which is a look at the dark corners where the downtrodden dwell. Springsteen hit it big with his 1975 album Born To Run, but he found he didn't have something very important to him: control of his music and career. In 1976, he sued his manager, Mike Appel, who sued him back. This kept Bruce out of the studio for about a year. When he returned, it was with a set of songs that convey a darker mood.

Much was written about Darkness On The Edge Of Town when the album was released. Reviews were mixed, and often commented on the anger and despair found in songs like this one. But Dave Marsh, arguably the most influential rock critic of the time, raved about it. In his Rolling Stone review, he wrote: "The only hate I hear on this LP is embodied in a single song, 'Streets Of Fire,' where Springsteen describes how it feels to be trapped by lies. And even here, he has the maturity to hate the lie, not the liar."

There is a 1984 movie called Streets Of Fire starring Diane Lane as an aspiring rock star with big dreams. It has many of the same themes found in Springsteen's music, and its producers hoped Springsteen would let them use this song, but he refused. Instead, big-time songwriters and studio musicians were used to create the soundtrack, which contained the Dan Hartman hit "I Can Dream About You" and a song called "Nowhere Fast," which was written by Jim Steinman and contains some very Springsteen-esque lyrics: "There's nothin' wrong with goin' nowhere, baby, but we should be goin' nowhere fast." Springsteen's drummer, Max Weinberg, played on that track.