JAZZ MUSICIAN

Studio version #2

Well, it's a Saturday night in New Jersey
And you feeling kinda wet
Now the summer heat is getting you worried
So you look as innocent as you can as you sweat
You got a woman on the other side of the law
But it ain't cool to go to see her yet
Because her ex-old man's some half-shot detective
With his heart set on Dragnet
And so you stand on the corner looking kinda torn
In the Blue Light Lounge where death was born
The jazz musician blows his horn

You pop a letter to your baby in Richmond
Because you're feeling kinda down
She's kinda small but at least she don't bitch none
And she needs you real bad and sometimes that's all that counts
Oh, you had a teenage band and flying hands
And, yeah, you were pretty big in the South
But you passed out on stage and flew into a rage
And someone tried to revive you mouth to mouth
And you felt a pain in your chest as you passed the crown
And in the Blue Light Lounge the lights went down
And the audience, like monks, slipped silently out of town

Well, now the atheist burns you for laughing out loud
'Cause he can't understand what you're saying
Whoa, and the DJ he's rattling like a Gatling gun
But man, that's your record he's playing
Well outside the park is dark
But the sidewalk's bright in line with the light of the living
Oh, and baby can I walk you home tonight
Because it's so bad outside but there's so much worth a giving
I was stranded in the jungle
First stage witness at a company killing
And shuffling my feet, clutching my high school diploma
Promised sixty bucks a week and top billing
And has anybody seen sweet Gabriel
That dark woman with the funny tattoo
The curtain calls of her shadow on my walls
All I got to pull me through
Whoa, and out on the corner there's no room to move
Because everybody's trying so hard to groove
And in the Blue Light Lounge jazz man he plays the blues

Info

The above lyrics are for a studio version of JAZZ MUSICIAN likely recorded around Jul-Aug 1972 at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, NY. It features Springsteen solo on vocals and piano. The May-Jun 1972 sessions at Pocketful Of Tunes Studios were produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, and Cretecos took the role of recording engineer. See studio version #1 for more details about the song.

Unofficial Releases

This studio version of JAZZ MUSICIAN was released on the briefly-legal albums The Early Years (Early Records), Unearthed (Masquerade Music, first issue only), and Before The Fame (Pony Express Records, first issue only). See PRODIGAL SON for more details.

Bruce Springsteen -- The Early Years (Early Records)

Bruce Springsteen -- Unearthed (Masquerade Music, first issue)

Bruce Springsteen -- Before The Fame (Pony Express Records, first issue)

Available Versions

List of available versions of JAZZ MUSICIAN on this website:

Page last updated: 09 Oct 2013