BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was performed 6 times during the Devils & Dust Solo Acoustic Tour . The live 25 Jun 2005 version of BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was released on the Stockholm 2005 official live download in 2020. Manfred Mann's Earth Band released a version of the song on their 1976 album The Roaring Silence. Their version includes the "Chopsticks" melody played on piano near the end of the bridge of the song.
The track reached No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Canadian RPM charts. BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was performed 8 times during The Seeger Sessions Tour , all in November 2006 in Europe. The song was played in a radically revamped full-band arrangement. The live 11 Nov 2006 version of BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was released on the Wembley Arena, November 11, 2006 official live download in 2020.
The live 19 Nov 2006 version of BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was released on the Live In Dublin album and home video in 2007. He also mentioned that he used a rhyming dictionary to write the song after Clive Davis didn't hear any "hits" for his debut album. Between Bruce Springsteen's version and Manfred Mann's cover, is there a definitive "Blinded By The Light"? Springsteen's opening salvo into the world of rock n' roll, is everything that people love about the Boss' early work.
The first track from his 1973 debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Is exploding with teenage lust, a need to escape, and the thrum of glistening cars speeding away from a small town. BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was performed on 04 Apr 2005 at Rechnitz Theater in Red Bank, NJ, during the taping of Bruce Springsteen's episode of VH1's Storytellers television series. An edited version of the concert was released on the VH1 Storytellers home video in 2005.
After a brief interlude with experimental jazz-rock , Mann formed Manfred Mann's Earth Band in 1971. It's not overly complicated and it never gets too prog-rock, but the album version of the song clocks in at over seven minutes and it always feels like a Moog solo is going to happen at any moment. Not that that's a bad thing, it's just overwhelming when you're not prepared. The track's rambling sound and sometimes nonsensical lyrics led to the inevitable Bob Dylan comparisons. The song may not have been a hit for Springsteen but it set him up as the next big thing.
All of the Manfred Mann comments should be moved to the appropriate Manfred Mann lyrics section. Springsteen definitely says "cut loose like a deuce" which definitely refers to a 1932 Ford Deuce Coupe which is a hot rod. I have been in the radio business for 38 years and had dinner with Manfred Mann about a year after he released Blinded by The Light. He wasn't talking about feminine products and was embarrassed that people interpreted it that way.
When the controversy over his lyrics got back to him he became curious and the best explanation he heard was that Bruce's lyric referred to a card game. He still wasn't sure but he didn't care because the song was a huge hit for him. I don't know if he was pulling my leg or just giving a standard answer to a question he must have gotten a lot, but he seemed sincere. BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was performed off-tour on 20 Feb 2003 at Somerville Theatre in Somerville, MA, during the DoubleTake Magazine benefit shows.
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was performed 4 times during the Wrecking Ball Tour . On this tour, the song was played twice times in a solo acoustic guitar arrangement (on of which during the solo acoustic pre-show) and twice in a full-band arrangement. I heard this song was written because the record company complained they didnt think the album had a potential hit. With the help of his trusty rhyming dictionary Springsteen penned a track full of teenage heartbreak and the need to escape and not being as grown up as he thinks he is. His line about a "silicone sister with a manager mister" who makes a pass at him isn't just one of the first references to breast implants in rock music , but it turns the song into a fish out of water story.
Springsteen doesn't just need to escape his home life in this song, he's striving to recognize the place he calls home. It tanked as a single, but Manfred Mann's later cover of it was number one on Billboard's Top 100 for the week of February 19, 1977. It actually debuted on the charts on November 20, 1976, and reached the top 13 weeks later, whileA New Kid in Townby the Eagles was number two.
It is still a radio classic, played many times a day, every day. The band tried to follow up this success with another cover from Springsteen,Spirit in the Night, which hit number 40 in June 1977. They also covered Bob Dylan's You Angel You, which was number 58 in the summer of 1979.
Bruce wrote the song when the president of Columbia Records, Cline Davis, listened to an early version of Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Springsteen wrote "Blinded by the Light" and "Spirit in the Night" in response. Bruce used a rhyming dictionary to search for lyrics that would work. The version by Manfred Mann's Earth Band appears on their 1976 album, "The Roaring Silence", which has the lyrics printed on the back cover and the full version of Dave Flett's magnificent guitar solo. Also, Chris Thompson is the lead vocalist; Manfred Mann does not sing until the very end of the song where the chorus is heard from the left channel, and the verse is heard from the right channel. To Gene about Go Kart Motzart - Springsteen write this song in '71 or '72, the Edmund Fitzgerald didn't sink until '75 and Gordon Lightfoot wrote that song in '76, three years after Columbia released "Greetings from Asbury Park".
Go Kart Motzart was a guy who hung out in Asbury Park in those days who was a little crazy and would do things like check the weather to see if it was safe to go outside. A lot of the lyrics have to do with local people and Jersey shore lingo. Manfred Mann's Earth Band's recording of the song changes the lyrics. The most prominent change is in the chorus, where Springsteen's "cut loose like a deuce" is replaced with "revved up like a deuce." The lyric is a reference to the 1932 V8-powered Ford automobile, which enthusiasts dubbed the "deuce coupe". Springsteen was fond of classic hot rods in his youth, hence the line "cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night".
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was performed once during the High Hopes Tour . On this tour, the song was played in a full-band arrangement. Audio recordings for most High Hopes Tour shows are officially available for purchase.
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT is known to have been performed at least 8 times during what is considered the Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. Tour . Many of that period's setlists are incomplete or unknown, and therefore, the song must have been played on some more dates during the Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. Tour. On this tour, the song was played in a full-band album-style arrangement, usually played as the penultimate song of the set, before THUNDERCRACK or another show-closer. I find it such a shame that Bruce "The Boss" wrote this song and sang but it didn't go high up the charts. Then Manfred Mann earth band cut out some of the words and made it a no. 1 song.
Well I still love the day Bruce did this song much better than they did it. The most explicit explanation of the song's meaning came in The Weeknd's Esquire cover interview, where he indicated that parts of the lyrics were actually connected to the feeling of driving while intoxicated. Many believe that the reason his After Hours performances have featured him heavily bandaged and bloodied is actually a warning against the dangers of driving drunk. Meanwhile Manfred Mann's Earth Band's rendition is a completely-different story. It was officially released on 27 August 1976, once again as a lead single (from their album "The Roaring Silence"). Their version went on to top the Billboard Hot 100 as well as the Cash Box Top 100 and Canada Top Singles.
And the tune also performed impressively across the pond, reaching number six on the UK Singles Chart. This song was written by the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, being originally featured on his debut breakthrough album, "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J." . He wrote it, under the commands of Clive Davis, to be a single from the aforementioned project.
And Columbia Records did in fact release his version as the lead single fromGreetings from Asbury Park, but it failed to chart. Oddly enough, the most famous version of the opening track of the record was not recorded by Springsteen. "Blinded by the Light" was turned into a whirling dervish of a prog-pop song by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, who took it to number one on the charts in 1977.
Manfred Mann's rock biography involves two distinct phases. Born in South Africa, Mann joined a band in England that was very successful on the UK charts and even came to America in the British Invasion. That band was called, somewhat confusingly, Manfred Mann, and was responsible for "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," a #1 hit in the U.S., and a cover of Bob Dylan's "Mighty Quinn" which peaked at #10.
Those two songs and another, "Pretty Flamingo," all topped the UK chart, and Manfred Mann placed another 10 cuts in the UK top 10 before breaking up in 1969. Springsteen has referenced this mishearing of his lyric, and he doesn't really care that people think he's talking about an intimate product. In an episode of VH1 Storytellers he even goofs on the fact that the song didn't become a hit until Manfred Mann changed the lyrics to be about feminine hygiene.
Originally titled "Madman's Bummers," the song tells the story of Springsteen's life up until that point. He references the people in his life, they places they went and the way they killed time waiting around for real life to begin. New Jersey, specifically the boardwalk of a Jersey Shore town, is palpable in each second of this track. The theme of the Blinded by the Light lyrics is an impressionistic look at some of the characters Springsteen met when he was a young, up and coming musician trying to get people to pay attention to his music. There has also been a long-standing controversy regarding a misheard lyric in the song.
Blinded By The Light lyrics were written by Bruce Springsteen, though Manfred Mann made the song popular four years after Springsteen's version failed to hit the charts. The Blinded by the Light lyrics show off Springsteen's songwriting talent with loads of internal rhyme and other poetic devices. I have also read the liner notes from Manfred Mann's Earth Band's "The Roaring Silence" lp and it was sung by then lead singer, Chris Thompson as "Revved up like a deuce" (and not "wrapped"), which makes more sense. I really wish this would be corrected on this website already. What this site is doing is perpetuating the misheard lyrics and that's just plain stupid as a reference source to do that. But yes, it's still kind of fun to sing the lyrics as "wrapped up", "douche", "another rumor" and so on, but that's not what they are, and don't tell Thompson about this because I've read he gets mad when people sing the song that way to him.
It's so funny, I've always hated the Manford Mann song, I switch the station every time it comes on the radio, but I could listen to Springsteen's version all day. BLINDED BY THE LIGHT is known to have been performed at least 15 times during what is considered The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle Tour . Some of that period's setlists are incomplete or unknown, and therefore, the song must have been played on some more dates during The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle Tour.
On this tour, the song was played in a full-band arrangement, much like the versions from the Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. Tour, but with a somewhat more experimental, "Dylanesque" vocal. In the 1974 part of the tour, the song also featured a three-to-four minute extended jazzy instrumental opening, perhaps the closest the E Street Band ever came to progressive rock. BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was usually played at or near the end of the shows. Bruce Springsteen's BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was most notably covered and released by Manfred Mann's Earth Band whose version became a #1 hit single in 1977.
See Manfred Mann's Earth Band's cover version for more details. In the interest of setting the record straight for at least a few of the worst offenders, Spotify has put together a playlist of the 10 most misquoted song lyrics. If you want to groove along while reading, Spotify's web playlist of the songs is embedded below. In 2018, Mann told Louder Sound that a DJ in Philadelphia recommended Greetings, which led to him and his Earth Band to record "Spirit in the Night" on 1975's Nightingales & Bombers.
It, too, flopped, as a single, but Mann tried again with "Blinded by the Light" a year later for The Roaring Silence. This time he took a Springsteen song all the way to No. 1. By then, Springsteen had his breakthrough with Born to Run, and the connection probably helped its commercial prospects. But it's also possible the perception of a lyric deemed too risque for radio did the trick. Even though it was deemed commercial enough to be released as a single on Feb. 23, 1973, more than a month after the album came out, "Blinded by the Light" failed to chart.
In light of their version of "Blinded by the Light" blowing up, Manfred Mann's Earth Band decided to once again look to the Boss. This resulted in them dropping a cover of Springsteen's track "Spirits in the Night", shortly after the release of this one, as a non-album single. In fact they released a couple of versions of it, ultimately reaching a peak position of number 40 on the Hot 100. For my singer, it was a somewhat mystical experience having grown up a big fan of the Boss.
For me, it was another bit of musical history to add to my own. And 39 years ago today, it all got started when the E Street Band released Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ to little popular success but eventual critical acclaim. The album only sold 25,000 copies, but it widely considered one of the great rock records of the '70s. And Little Early Burly gave my hand his curly whirly. Misheard lyrics occur when people misunderstand the lyrics in a song.
These are NOT intentional rephrasing of lyrics, which is called parody. This page contains all the misheard lyrics for Blinded By The Light that have been submitted to this site and the old collection from inthe80s started in 1996. For more information about the misheard lyrics available on this site, please read our FAQ. For some reason this was the most difficult thing he's written all day, and here's the kicker – his girlfriend wrote the funny part of that last sentence.
He's obsessed with the ways in which singular, transgressive acts have shaped the broader strokes of history, and he believes in alternate dimensions, which means that he's great at a dinner party. When he's not writing about culture, pop or otherwise, he's adding to his found photograph collection and eavesdropping on strangers in public. Mann's cover went to number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Cash Box Top 100, which is nuts. The band changed a few lyrics and cut the last two verses of the song while turning it into a legitimate hit. The band scored another hit penned by Springsteen later that year with "Spirit in the Night," but it didn't capture the audience's attention.
When the Manfred Mann's cover of the song charted in 1977, Mann's phrasing of "deuce" made listeners and fans of feminine hygiene products perk up. Many people listening in their cars heard Mann sing the line "revved up like a douche," which doesn't really make sense but that doesn't matter. As with "Purple Haze" and "Money For Nothing," listeners are prone to hearing what they want. I first heard the Manfred Mann Earth Band version of this song in early 1977. It was often played in a bar I frequented and I remember being told by a know-it-all acquaintance that I was about drag racing. He had the 'revved up like a deuce' and 'runners in the night' parts right.
