Bruce's Saddest Song (Redux)

Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 22:09:55 -0400
Newsgroups: rec.music.artists.springsteen
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I know there was a thread about this a couple of weeks ago, but I've thought
about what I would consider the saddest Bruce song and for me it's Balboa
Park. Maybe it's being a parent and living everyday having to read about
all the atrocities visited upon innocent children and the fear that I can
only do so much to protect mine.
In concert Bruce said BP is a song about what happens when innocence goes
unprotected in children - the story he told about when his first child was
born and he wanted to tell people to stop shouting, there were miracles
going on always resonates with me. Falling in love, getting married are
wonderful experiences, but having a child is the closest I think a person
can come to experiencing something transcendent. We had a case near here a
few years ago, when my kids were very young where 2 girls were taken from
their home after school , beaten and killed. They just recently found the
culprit after he attacked another girl who got away. I still think about how
terrified those girls must have been, how innocent they were, how
undeserving any child is of that kind of fate.
While You're Missing and The River can make me sad, Balboa Park always gets
me. Especially the last lines.
Anne
as the car sped away spider held his stomach
limped to his blanket 'neath the underpass
lie there tasting his own blood on his tongue
closed his eyes and listened to the cars
rushin by so fast