Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- "Because The Night" (1980)

In honor of taking my family to see Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band tomorrow night at Giants Stadium, I thought I'd discuss one of his more unusual catalog songs that I consider one of his best (and you can imagine, it's tough to make that choice).

"Because The Night" is unique in that it was the only songwriting collaboration I can recall Springsteen doing (in this case, punk poet Patti Smith), and it never appeared on any album as a studio recording. Patti Smith had her biggest hit with it off her Easter album in 1978, but it was not until several years later that The Boss released this ferocious version on his first live compilation. Upstate New York folk rock band 10,000 Maniacs had a hit with it too in the 90's.

Lyrically, the song is a blend of the two artists while the music is pure Springsteen. Apparently Springsteen was trying to record a version of it during his Darkness On The Edge of Town sessions, and it never quite jelled. And in an uncharacteristic move, because you just don't hear about outsiders stepping into Springsteen's songwriting action, Smith overhauled the lyrics to her viewpoint. While a song like "I'm On Fire" is about as erotic as Bruce usually gets, the "Because The Night" lyrics definitely pushed the envelope.

It starts off with the usual Bruce themes of working all day, "protecting" his woman...

Take me now baby here as I am
Pull me close try an understand
I work all day out in the hot sun
Stay with me now till the mornin' comes
Come on now try and understand
The way I feel when I'm in your hands
Take me now as the sun descends
They can't hurt you now
They can't hurt you now
They can't hurt you now

And then there's this phrase right out of the Bruce playbook...

What I got I have earned
What I'm not I have learned.

However, the middle section shifts to Patti Smith mode...

Your love is here and now
The vicious circle turns and burns without
Though I cannot live forgive me now
The time has come to take this moment and
They can't hurt you now.

Of course, I could be totally wrong about who wrote what...

I think another reason why the song didn't make Darkness On The Edge of Town is because it bears a musical resemblance to "Prove It All Night." Very similar chord patterns on the choruses.

But you have to love Springsteen's distinctly male version, which has that big thump of Max Weinberg's drums, all the men shouting "Because the night!" in the choruses, jacking it up half a key right after the middle break, and the mightily fantastic Nils Lofgren trading off solos with the Boss (his trademark flag hanging off the end of his instrument -- hey isn't this the part you wish Patti Smith could have put on her version?).

Why keep writing about it when you can see it below, straight from Paris in 1985. You can tell this was shot in Bruce's "Darkness" phase with his cut-off shirt and ripped muscles. Below that, a skinny, jacketed Bruce and the band from 1978 (!) in Passaic, NJ. And then fast forwarding to 2004's tour in support of presidential candidate John Kerry, when REM's Michael Stipe joined him in Washington DC. My daughter loved the Patti Smith cover but when I showed her this from a DVD, she recognized it instantly and now calls it "the boy version."

10cc -- "I'm Mandy Fly Me" (1976)

Everything 10cc had been doing had led to this masterpiece album. Four incredibly clever musicians and singers who seemingly could play every instrument, sing like angels and collaborate in endless combinations, 10cc already had their biggest American hit up to that time, "I'm Not In Love."




While they were strictly a word-of-mouth cult act in the US, in the UK, they were unstoppable from the beginning. I remember WNEW-FM playing their early Beach Boys-paen "Rubber Bullets" a few years before How Dare You. One of my high school friends, Jesse Goldstein, was raving about the second album, Sheet Music, and explaining how funny the lyrics were.

I was bowled over by the time The Original Soundtrack album came out, which contained "I'm Not In Love," one of the ultimate headphone records at the time. Intensely creative, crossing over all kinds of genres from opera to Italian movie themes, 10cc proceeded to up the ante with How Dare You (with the easily recognizable Hipgnosis-designed cover). They stepped into different characters from madmen to couch potatoes, threw in lots of bad puns ("I get a pain right here in the Shirley Temples!"), heavily overdubbed voices coming in and out of the speakers, all done in endlessly catchy pop melodies. 10cc specialized in stories of people not playing with all their cards intact.

The album's pinnacle was "I'm Mandy Fly Me," a tongue-in-cheek airborne love saga of being smitten by an adorable airline stewardess in an ad and the wild fantasy adventure that ensues. On the album version, it begins with a snippet from the early "Clockwork Creep" song, with the words "Oh no, you'll never get me in one of these again/Cos what goes up, must come/Down, down, down, down." Graham Gouldman's bass cuts right in with Kevin Godley's 4/4 drums and away we go. Strummed piano strings, a beautiful whistling melody, the well-timed "Fasten Your Seatbelts" bell, and the tons and tons of overdubbed harmonies and vocals.

I've often heard her jingle
It's never struck a chord
With a smile as bright as sunshine
She called me through the poster
And welcomed me aboard.

She led me she fed me
She read me like a book
But I'm hiding in the small print
Won't you take another look
And take me away
Try me Mandy fly me away.

The world was spinning like a ball
And then it wasn't there at all
And as my heart began to fall.

I saw her walking on the water
As the sharks were comin' for me
I felt Mandy pull me up give me the kiss of life
Just like the girl in Dr. No No No No.

Ah when they pulled me from the wreckage
And her body couldn't be found
Was it in my mind it seems
I had a crazy dream
I told them so but they said no no no no.

I found me on a street
And starin' at a wall
If it hadn't have been for Mandy
Her promise up above me
Well I wouldn't be here at all.
So if you're travellin' in the sky
Don't be surprised if someone said Hi
I'm Mandy fly me.


10cc pioneered what I called the "pop opera" on their 1975 Original Soundtrack album -- the nine-minute "Une Nuit A Paris" actually came in three sections with many character parts. By the time of How Dare You, they compacted the form into four or five minutes. "I'm Mandy Fly Me" is wrapped up as a beautiful love song, performed with just a hint of "wink wink" and nowhere as bombastic as Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," but akin to the multi-part songs Paul McCartney liked to compose (worth noting that 10cc's Eric Stewart later joined McCartney's band).

I know it sounds like a cliche but in the present era of unrelenting hip hop, sampling and second rate grunge rock bands, we will unfortunately never see the likes of a group like 10cc again. An act where everybody played real instruments, sang like nobody's business, and wrote unbelievably clever and memorable pop songs, with no Pro Tools, Auto Tune or digital editing to alter them.

The Beastie Boys -- "Fight For Your Right" (1986)

This is a rap song that even a rock and roller could love.

Coming out of the early Rick Rubin/Def Jam era, when Rubin was sampling some of classic rock's greatest artists for rap tunes (Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath), this song, in many ways, was a stroke of genius.

Every young white boy likes a good party song that is loud, obnoxious and you could sing along to like an anthem. "Fight For Your Right" had those three qualities in spades. Throw in the age-old "your parents suck" sentiment, a little porn mention, overdriven guitar riffs and some good old tongue-in-cheek subversiveness and you've got every ingredient for a hit. Except the lyrics are rapped, or should I say, shouted!

So it was no wonder that this song was a no-brainer as my summer Fire Island house anthem in 1987. Please -- silly single white boys from Manhattan, Long Island and Queens spending every weekend in a non-stop happy hour and looking for potential girlfriends?

While Run-DMC recruited the actual Aerosmith band to blend rock and rap, Rubin did the job himself in what can best be described as one cheesy rock production. There are no dynamics in the simple kick, snare and ride cymbal loop (the ride is the giveaway, as it sounds like it's hit at the exact same velocity throughout the song). The meathead three-chord riff mimic the first three notes of Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water." The song's biggest letdown is the solo (once dubbed by Guitar World as one of rock's worst), which you are anticipating some crazy stuff for air guitar nirvana, and it basically sputters from the beginning. I guess Rubin just knew chords!


You wake up late for school man you don't wanna go,
You ask your mom "please?" but she still says "NO!"
You miss two classes and no homework
but your teacher preaches class like your some kind of jerk

You gotta fight, for your right,
to paaaaaaaaaarty!

Your pops caught you smokin' man he said "NO WAY!"
That hypocrite smokes two packs a day!
Man, living at home is such a drag
Now your mom threw away your best porno mag.

You gotta fight, for your right,
to paaaaaaaaaarty!

Don't step outta this house if that's the clothes you're gonna wear!!!!
I'll kick you outta my home if you dont CUT THAT HAIR!!
Your mom busted in and said "WHAT'S THAT NOISE!?!?"
Aww, mom your just jealous it's The Beastie Boys!


For a cheesy rock/rap classic, you need an equally cheesy video, this one costing a reputed $20,000. It gave the three Beastie Boys a terrific excuse to basically strut into a living room, turn a nerd party upside down, hit on the girls, spike the punch, throw custard pies, let their degenerate friends in, and make a mess.