One of the first Bruce Springsteen songs I truly fell in love with was “New York City Serenade,” the closing track from The Wild, the Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle (1973). Long before I ever imagined I would end up living in New York City, the song’s beauty resonated with me.
From the opening notes on the original recording with David Sancious playing a long piano introduction before Springsteen’s guitar comes in, through the final refrain about the junk man, the music and imagery captures a time and place much like “Jungleland” later did. Unlike the later song, though, the story in “New York City Serenade” is less clear.
Left of the Dial noted the words amount to “a jumble of lyrics with some nice bits which just don’t add up to much.” But the Christian Science Monitor found some parenting advice in the song. But, as Left of the Dial also notes, the music is the star of this song.
Perhaps I found something special in the song because it was not something one heard on the radio. So among most of my friends, the song was something that only I knew.
My lonely connection to the song did not last for long. My college roommates in the early 1980s heard the song over and over again playing on my stereo. The repeated plays annoyed one of my roommates so much that we regularly engaged in a stereo war with me playing “New York City Serenade” against his beloved REO Speedwagon “Heard it from a Friend.”
Actually, I’m not even sure which REO Speedwagon song he used to play. But even though today I am not ashamed to admit I have REO Speedwagon songs in my music collection, I still think my choice of song has held up pretty well.
I have read about early shows where Springsteen closed his concerts with “New York City Serenade.” But I have never been lucky enough to hear him play the rarely performed song live.
Yet, on July 11, 2013, Springsteen dragged out a symphony to play the song with the E Street Band. Thank God for YouTube.
Check out Blogness who asks why Europe was getting Springsteen’s rare songs. What is your favorite Springsteen deep track? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(2014). The title track from the set, “My Name Is New York,” was never released in Guthrie’s lifetime.
