Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off their 2024 tour in Phoenix on Tuesday, March 19. The show featured the Boss and his group playing a set of tunes that spanned his entire 50-plus-year career.
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It goes without saying that Springsteen has written many, many songs beloved by rock fans around the world, and we only can assume the Boss is happy with the majority of his own tunes as well. That being said, over the years, there have been a few of his own compositions for which Springsteen has expressed disdain.
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Here are three Springsteen songs that, at least at one time, Bruce has said he disliked:
“Blinded by the Light” (Manfred Mann’s Earth Band version)
Springsteen’s original version of “Blinded by the Light” appeared as the first song on his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. However, it was a 1976 cover by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band that popularized the tune. The British group’s version went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1977. To date, it’s the only Springsteen-penned song to top the Hot 100 chart.
Despite the song’s success, Springsteen didn’t like the Manfred Mann version for one particular reason. When lead singer Chris Thompson belted out the word “deuce” in the chorus, it sounded like he was singing “douche,” and that’s what many people who heard the song assumed the lyric was.
Springsteen joked about the misheard lyric when he performed on a 2005 episode of MTV Storytellers.
“My line says, ‘cut loose like a deuce,’ and theirs said, ‘cut loose like a douche,’” Bruce noted. “I have a feeling that that is why the song sky-rocketed to number one.”
He then explained, “Deuce was like a little deuce coupe, as in a two-seater hot rod. Douche is a feminine hygienic procedure … but what can I say? The public spoke.”
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Thompson has said that he did sing “deuce,” but it sounded like “douche” because of the way the song was mixed. In a 2023 interview, Thomspon recalled that he once had the chance to have dinner with Springsteen and he asked him what he thought of the Manfred Mann’s Earth Band cover of “Blinded by the Light.” He said that the Boss didn’t answer the question, instead complimenting him on one of his own songs.
“Born to Run”
“Born to Run,” the title track to Springsteen’s third album, was Bruce’s breakthrough hit in 1975 and has long been a bona fide rock classic.
However, Springsteen admitted that he was unhappy with the song when he first heard it because he didn’t like the sound of his voice.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Springsteen explained, “When you first start, you’re not used to hearing yourself, even two or three records in. I just couldn’t get used to the sound of my voice. Very often, it sounds terrible to you.”
Springsteen recalled that Jimmy Iovine, who mixed the Born to Run album, brought an initial pressing of the LP for Bruce to listen to while he was on tour. The Boss remembered that they had to find a music store with a turntable in order for him to hear the album.
“So I’m listening to the mastering of Born to Run, the two of us are standing there,” Springsteen told Fallon. “Jimmy [Iovine] is trying to get me to say it’s okay—‘We can release it?’—and I’m like, ‘Nnn … into the pool at the hotel!’ At any rate, we did release it and it worked out alright.”
“The Way”
“The Way” is a rarity recorded during the sessions for Springsteen’s 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town.
The brooding ballad only is available on the 2010 Springsteen compilation The Promise, a collection of previously unreleased tunes recorded during the making of Darkness on the Edge of Town.
“The Way” appears as a hidden track at the end of another song, “City of Night.”
During a 2010 appearance on SiriusXM’s E Street Radio, Springsteen explained why he buried “The Way” as a hidden track on the comp.
“The main reason it’s hidden is because I never liked it,” he admitted. He then added, “I would like to see it placed in a David Lynch film over a sexually perverse scene. That, to me, is it’s righteous home.”
Springsteen also recalled that Iovine, who engineered Darkness on the Edge of Town, really liked it and wanted Bruce to put it on the album.
“[Jimmy] lobbied for it in ’78 like he was gonna keel over,” Springsteen said.
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