Bonfire Night | Take It Easy

As that image may remind you, we celebrate today, 5th November, here in the UK as Guy Fawkes Night, aka Bonfire Night, when all over the country there will be bonfires and fireworks. This is to mark a failed attempt in 1605 to blow up the Houses of Parliament, though I think a successful attempt might be cause for more celebration nowadays. The details of this are well documented so I won’t bore you with them here, but if you want to know more there is a good article in Wikipedia which draws on a number of authoritative sources to give a full description of the plot and its aftermath. I have often played relevant tunes for today, but it is Song Lyric Sunday day, so what should I do? The theme Jim has given us for today, in his post Lesser-Known Piece Of Music, is underrated deep album cuts, so is there a song that fits that bill and mentions fire in its title? Of course there is! This one:

And if you need them, here are the lyrics:

I’m drivin’ in my car, you turn on the radio
I’m pullin’ you close, but you just say no
You say you don’t like it, but girl I know you’re a liar
Cause when we kiss, ooh, fire

Late at night, I’m taking you home
I say I want to stay, you say you want to be alone
You say you don’t need me, but you can’t hide your desire
Cause when we kiss, ooh, fire

You’ve had a hold on me right from the start
I felt so sad, I couldn’t tear it apart
Got my nerves all jumpin’, actin’ like a fool
Cause your kisses they burn, but your heart stays cool

Romeo and Juliet, Samson and Delilah
Baby, you can bet the love they couldn’t deny
Well, now your words say split, but your words they lie
Cause when we kiss, ooh, fire

Oh, oh, fire
Fire
Oh, oh, fire
Oh, oh, fire

Source: LyricFind (amended by me for errors!)

Songwriters: Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen originally saw this as a song that could have been sung by Elvis Presley, of whom he was a fan. It was written after he saw Elvis perform at a May 28, 1977 concert at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Bruce has been quoted as saying “I sent Elvis a demo of it but he died before it arrived.” He completed his own recording on 17 June 1977 as part of the sessions which became his June 1978 album Darkness On The Edge Of Town, but this song wasn’t included on it. And Bruce’s studio version stayed there until November 2010, when it was eventually released as part of the box set The Promise, which was a collection of previously unreleased songs from those sessions, some of which – like this one – had a newly recorded vocal. I think thirty three years from recording to release qualifies this song for the description of ‘deep cut,’ don’t you?

To be completely accurate Bruce had released a version of this song before: a live recording from December 1978 which was part of the triple album Live 1975-85, which came out in November 1986. This isn’t the actual recording that was used for that album, but it was from the same tour:

That Houston concert from December 1978 was also issued as a live album from the Bruce Springsteen Archives in September 2017, so I think it fair to say that he has got the mileage out of this one! Despite his initial disinterest in releasing his own version Bruce was reportedly upset when the Pointer Sisters’ version reached #2 in the US in February 1979, as at that point his own most successful single was Born to Run, which had reached #23 in 1975: he made up for that when Dancing In The Dark matched the Pointers by getting to #2 in 1984. Fun fact: he has never had a #1 single in either the US or the UK. For the sake of completeness, and because I like their version too, here is the one that reached #2 in the US and earned itself a gold disc along the way, with lyrics suitably changed for gender:

That’s all for today. I’m off to listen to all the twats letting off fireworks through the day and well into the night, though hopefully the price of the things will have deterred a few this year. And tomorrow is a schoolday, so that may also put a few off, especially if they’re like Ivanka Trump.

See you again for Tuesday Tunes 😊🎶