Because it sounds like Springsteen, but it really could've been a Whitney Houston song if they'd wanted it to be. In fact, someone ought to arrange "Thunder Road" as a pop/R&B ballad and have...I actually don't know who the modern Whitney Houston is anymore. We're probably a good 10-12 years past it being Mariah Carey, who I pretty much want to sing everything. Fuck it, George Michael should sing it, because he should sing everything.
And it completely delivers on that promise. It doesn't go from theme to theme to theme, from verse to chorus to verse--it just kicks off and then rolls downhill, picking up speed as it goes, like a boulder. It starts off quiet, with just the piano in the background, and every time a new instrument comes in it's like the rolling boulder reaches the end of one ledge and lands on the next level with a huge crunching sound. And so you get from a demure, tentative "The screen door slams / Mary's dress waves" all the way to shouting out "It's a town full of losers / And I'm pullin' out of here to win" in about four minutes. It's not as complicated, or really as poignant a story as "Jungleland" but it really does feel like you read a book by the time you're through "Thunder Road."
The other interesting thing about "Thunder Road" is that it has so many great vocal moments, which it doesn't get credit for because Springsteen--legendary frontman and songwriter though he may be--sounds a little like the Duck Vine in baritone. So he can't lean on "throw roses in the rain" or "I'm no hero, that's understood / All the redemption I can offer you is beneath this dirty hood," which is Springsteen's second-best muscle-car-innards-as-metaphor-for-sex line, after "Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims / and strap your hands 'cross my engines" from "Born to Run."
Springsteen, in the interest of fairness, does not take nearly enough shit for including "You ain't a beauty, but hey, you're all right" in the verse where he's trying to get Mary into his car, which is fucked up. Like, you don't neg someone when you're asking her to run away with you. That's not the foundation of a loving and trusting relationship, Bruce, and I'm ashamed of you. You tell her she looks wonderful, which you know, because like 20 seconds ago you said "Like a vision she dances across the porch," so now you're just being a dick.
But that's what I mean when I say this could've been a Whitney Houston song--there are moments to really sing, to lean into it, which is why it's my favorite Springsteen song.
The other interesting thing about "Thunder Road" is that it has so many great vocal moments, which it doesn't get credit for because Springsteen--legendary frontman and songwriter though he may be--sounds a little like the Duck Vine in baritone. So he can't lean on "throw roses in the rain" or "I'm no hero, that's understood / All the redemption I can offer you is beneath this dirty hood," which is Springsteen's second-best muscle-car-innards-as-metaphor-for-sex line, after "Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims / and strap your hands 'cross my engines" from "Born to Run."
Springsteen, in the interest of fairness, does not take nearly enough shit for including "You ain't a beauty, but hey, you're all right" in the verse where he's trying to get Mary into his car, which is fucked up. Like, you don't neg someone when you're asking her to run away with you. That's not the foundation of a loving and trusting relationship, Bruce, and I'm ashamed of you. You tell her she looks wonderful, which you know, because like 20 seconds ago you said "Like a vision she dances across the porch," so now you're just being a dick.
But that's what I mean when I say this could've been a Whitney Houston song--there are moments to really sing, to lean into it, which is why it's my favorite Springsteen song.
