45. For You (Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, 1973)

Springsteens charmiga debutskiva från 1973 är på många sätt en naiv och ungdomlig skiva från en artist som inte hittat sig själv än. Den unge Bruce vill säga så mycket och klämma in så många intryck i sin musik att slutresultatet blir hellre än bra. Texterna är så laddade med ord att han snubblar och snavar sig fram genom den sprudlande lyriken. Som en ung Bob Dylan forsar ordflödet fram genom låtarna. Jag låter texten till listans fyrtiofemte låt tala sitt eget språk:

Princess cards she sends me with her regards
barroom eyes shine vacancy, to see her you gotta look hard
Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted
To her Cheshire smile. I'll stand on file, she's all I ever wanted.
But you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts
honey, get your carpetbaggers off my back
you wouldn't even give me time to cover my tracks.
You said, "Here's your mirror and your ball and jacks".
But they're not what I came for, and I'm sure you see that too
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
and your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free

Crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
reveal yourself all now to me girl while you've got the strength to speak
Cause they're waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks
But I could give it all to you now if only you could ask.
And don't call for your surgeon even he says it's too late
It's not your lungs this time, it's your heart that holds your fate
Don't give me money, honey, I don't want it back
you and your pony face and your union jack
well take your local joker and teach him how to act
I swear I was never that way even when I really cracked
Didn't you think I knew that you were born with the power of a locomotive
able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?
And your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
you could laugh and cry in a single sound.

And your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the god?

You were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
Remember how I poured salt on your tongue and hung just out of reach
And the band they played the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
That ragged, jagged melody she still clings to me like a leech.
But that medal you wore on your chest always got in the way
like a little girl with a trophy so soft to buy her way
We were both hitchhikers but you had your ear tuned to the roar
of some metal-tempered engine on an alien, distant shore
So you, left to find a better reason than the one we were living for
and it's not that nursery mouth I came back for
It's not the way you're stretched out on the floor
cause I've broken all your windows and I've rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores?
And you should know that's true...
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
and your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free

Redan på nästa skiva, The Wild, The Innocent And The E-street Shuffle, har tyglarna stramats åt och en mer enhetlig, sansad och bättre skiva blir resultatet. Därmed inte sagt att debutskivan inte är bra, för det är den verkligen. Här finns mängder av Springsteen-klassiker såsom Blinded By The Light, Spirit In The Nigth, Growin' Up, Lost In The Flood, It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City och förstås For You - skivans allra bästa spår i mitt tycke. Det här är låtar som kommer till sin rätt på ett helt annat sätt live. For You framförs antingen av hela E Street Band eller ensam med Springsteen på pianot. Svårt att säga vilken version som är bäst, jag bjuder på båda.