732 The Boss is on Fire

I call it the creepiest song ever, even while I know I mustn't take song lyrics literally ... and if you understand its double entendre it certainly is one of the cheekiest ever. It was suggested the song is a protest against pedophilia. This is what I said on fb after my son told me he was going to the Springsteen concert:

Hmmm, the man, who wrote the creepiest song ever: "Hey little girl is your daddy home, did he go away and leave you all alone; I got a bad desire; I'm on fire. Tell me now baby is he good to you; can he do to you the things that I do." There's just too much room for unsavoury interpretations ... if the song was a protest against pedophilia (which apparently it's not), then why give a pedophile such a strong voice? The impact is even worse because it's such nice music. Creeeeeepy.

I was duly challenged and then continued:

Alex Rawle

Heavy !

Carsten Burmeister It ain’t heavy, Alex, just showbiz: According to the video clip the song is about an unfulfilled adulterous affair … in the American vernacular “little girl” can be an endearing term for women of any age, and “daddy” likewise for any husband or lover. For some singer/song-writers ambiguity is stock-in-trade, much used to create mystique (and attention … John Lennon always maintained - with a cheeky smile - that the immensely trippy Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds never was about LSD; that didn’t curb sales).

I’ll be interested to hear, Yani, if in the concert Born in the USA was delivered - and received - as a demure, wistful ballad bemoaning the ill treatment of Vietnam vets, or a fist-pumping, on your toes, screaming-out-aloud anthem in tune with right-wing, patriotic, “America is Great” connotations, as are still common-place in some US political rallies. (Sorry, I know, I’m over-thinking all this.) Nevertheless, enjoy the show … a great rocker, he is (says Yoda).

Hey little girl is your daddy home

Did he go away and leave you all alone, mmm mmm

I got a bad desire

Oh, ho ho, I'm on fire

Tell me now baby is he good to you

And can he do to you the things that I do, oh no

I can take you higher

Oh, ho ho, I'm on fire

Sometimes it's like someone took a knife baby

Edgy and dull and cut a six inch valley

Through the middle of my soul

At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet

And a freight train running through the middle of my head

Only you, can cool my desire

Oh, ho ho, I'm on fire