This 1973 Song Helped Bruce Springsteen Get Signed and Scared David Bowie From Riding the Subway

When record producer Mike Appel heard Bruce Springsteen perform “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” during an audition in 1972, it convinced him to quit his job and become his manager. At the time, Springsteen still didn’t have a label and brought “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” to his audition with John Hammond at Columbia Records, which helped him get signed.

“When I was done, I looked up,” recalled Springsteen of the experience in his 2016 memoir Born to Run, “and I heard him say, ‘You’ve got to be on Columbia Records. That was wonderful.’”

The closing track on Springsteen’s 1973 debut, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City,” is the story of a young man growing up on the city streets trying to do the right thing before he’s pulled into more “unsaintly” acts.

Well, I was the king of the alley
I could talk trash
I was the prince of the paupers
Crowned downtown at the beggar’s bash
I was the pimp’s main prophet
I kept everything cool
Just a backstreet gambler with the luck to lose
And when the heat came down
It was left on the ground
The devil appeared like Jesus
Through the steam in the street
Showin’ me a hand, I knew even the cops couldn’t beat
I felt his hot breath on my neck as I dove into the heat
It’s so hard to be a saint when you’re just a boy out on the street

When the sages and the subway
Sit just like the living dead
The tracks clack out the rhythm
Their eyes fixed straight ahead
They ride the line of balance
And hold on by just a thread
It’s too hot in these tunnels
You can get hit up by the heat

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“I never rode the subway again.”

When he first heard the song, the lyrics had a different effect on David Bowie, who said it made him afraid to use public transportation.

“After I heard this track, I never rode the subway again,” said Bowie, while hosting his first radio show as a guest DJ for BBC Radio 1 on March 20, 1979. “It’s called ‘It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City.’ That really scared the living ones out of me.”

I get up to get out at your next stop
But they push you back in your seat
My heart starts beating faster as I struggle to my feet
Then, I get out of that hole and I went back up on the street

During his spin as a BBC DJ for two hours, Bowie played 28 of his favorite songs, including two from his album Lodger—“Yassassin” and “Boys Keep Swinging”—along with songs by John Lennon, Danny Kaye, the Staple Sisters, his former Berlin cohort, Iggy Pop, Talking Heads, and more, along with Springsteen’s Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J track.

Of course, Bowie didn’t stay scared of public transportation for long, often riding the local trains while living in Berlin with Pop during his “Berlin Trilogy” era, and during his time in New York City. In 2018, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City also issued a limited-edition, collectible Bowie MetroCards for bus and subway patrons. 

[RELATED: Remembering David Bowie’s First No. 1 Single and Its Co-Writer: John Lennon]

Bowie’s Covers

Despite its distressing lyrics, Bowie recorded several covers of “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City,” including one during sessions for his 1974 album Diamond Dogs, which was later released on his 1989 box set, Sound + Vision. Bowie also recorded Springsteen’s “Growin’ Up” during an earlier Diamond Dogs session and another version of “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” while recording Young Americans at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia in November 1974.

During one of his Young Americans sessions, Springsteen came down to meet Bowie and hang out at the studio. “I took the Greyhound bus down to Philadelphia,” recalled Springsteen in 2016. “That’s how early on it was.”

Writer Mike McGrath was also present during the sessions and documented their meeting in a 1974 article for The Drummer magazine, “Bowie Meets Springsteen.” Bowie told Springsteen that when he saw him play at Max’s Kansas City, he knew he had to cover one of his songs. The two also complained about the stage divers and poor sound at the Spectrum Arena in Philadelphia, and promised to meet again once they were back in New York City.

Before Springsteen left the studio at 5 a.m., he never got to hear Bowie’s version of “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City.” At the time, Bowie didn’t think the cover was ready and felt insecure about playing it for Springsteen.

“I remember chickening out of playing,” remembered Bowie. “I didn’t want to play to him because I wasn’t happy with it anyway.”

Reflecting on their first meeting years later, Bowie recalled, “I just couldn’t relate to him at all. It was a bad time for us to have met. I could see that he was thinking, ‘Who is this weird guy?’ And I was thinking, ‘What do I say to normal people?’ There was a real impasse.”

He added, “But I still think he was one of the better American songwriters around in those early days.”

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images