Bruce Springsteen - "New York City Serenade"
"Philadelphia Freedom" may be the only Elton John song left on this planet that I actually like. And during the past two weeks HBO has been running their documentary about Billie Jean King (it's top notch, and worth watching), which of course has segment about World Team Tennis and Elton John and Bernie Taupin writing this song for King's team. After hearing it a few times--and with a trip to Philly for a Mets game coming down the pike--I knew I had to download it and use it for one of the mixes I was making for our excursion.
I've been on a Springsteen kick as the well the past week, and have been especially fixated on tracks (studio and various live versions) from The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. "New York City Serenade" is a gorgeous nine minutes and 55 seconds of song, closing out an entire side of epics. (Side 2 of the 1973 album also features the seven-minute plus cuts "Incident on 57th Street" and "Rosalita.") I was looking to put together a mix disc of New Jersey artists for someone I know moving to the Garden State, and closing it off with this dream-like tale of kids and homeless folk and the "fish lady" in New York wrapped it all up on a great note. And it contains one of my favorite lyrics from the Boss:
"It's midnight in Manhattan, this is no time to get cute
It's a mad dog's promenade
So walk tall or baby don't walk at all."
Indeed.
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