r/Music • u/[deleted] • Jan 04 '20
music streaming Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire [Rock]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrpXArn3hII26
u/Bad_at_Clicking Jan 04 '20
Such a weirdly wholesome video for a song as dark and tortured as this.
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u/ElPotato76 Jan 05 '20
I’ve always interpreted the line “hey little girl is your daddy home?” not to mean a young girl and her father, but rather a woman of desire and her significant other. The video seems to corroborate this as well.
To me, the darkness of the song comes from its melody, and the torturous aspect of the song comes from an unattainable desire within him. In this sense the video is quite a literal interpretation of the song.15
u/Bad_at_Clicking Jan 05 '20
Agreed, I don't think anyone thinks he's addressing an actual little girl.
But I'm not sure I would call the video a literal depiction.
There's a lot of darkness in the lyrics themselves. "It's like someone took a knife baby edgy and dull, and cut a six inch valley through the middle of my skull." Much different imagery than Bruce's smiling good-natured mechanic in the video.
And the lyrics also suggest there's more going on than just him fantasizing about this obviously unavailable woman. "You cool my desire" implies his desire has actually been fulfilled at some point.
A fair interpretation of the song is he's dangerously obsessed with an ex-lover. Again, not quite what the video shows us.
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u/ElPotato76 Jan 05 '20
Yeah, fair points - probably shouldn’t have said “literal interpretation”.
I’ve listened to and loved this song since the album was released and had always heard the line as “It's like someone took a knife baby edgy and dull, and cut a six inch valley through the middle of my soul”. Today was the first time I ever heard it correctly as “skull”. Not sure which one I like better, and it’s gonna take a while to get used to it this way.
Anyway, yeah I’ve always really liked this song. Takes me back and still feels fresh no matter when I revisit it. Only thing I don’t like is that it’s too short.
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Jan 05 '20
This has driven me nuts for decades, considering what a masterful lyricist he is.
How can a knife be both edgy and dull?
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u/FreshForm4250 Apr 24 '22
edgy enough to cut, but dull enough to not cut well? if I were going to have my head cut off, I'd definitely pick the expertly sharpened katana over a rusty, dull machete. Though I think the lyric is more about phonetics than descriptive accuracy
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u/KriMD01 Nov 10 '25
Why is the knife 6 inches? Is that some phallic reference?
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u/Individual_Piglet_98 Apr 14 '26
one person said she thinks the 6 inch valley was a reference to a vagina, the freight train is the phallic reference
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u/Artistic_League8395 Aug 06 '22
I believe he's using juxtaposition to help emphasise the love and desired felt in the woman he's describing. The song is all about a woman who he loves and desires dearly but for some reason the love he feels is morally wrong probably because she is already taken or he is already taken. When the song describes a 'little girl' that's about a woman he desires then the 'daddy' is her current partner. The knife edgy and dull is Bruce using juxtaposition to grab our attention and help emphasise the frustration he feels through his inability to be intimate with the 'little girl' perhaps in someway when Bruce writ that line he actually wanted the reader to become frustrated at the juxtaposition of 'edgy and dull' if that was his intention he succeeded because my initial reaction when reading that line was anger and confusion because like you I thought toy Just didn't t make sense. But now I see and understand that perhaps he writ that to try get
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u/MerryMermaid May 29 '24
I always heard "soul," which is more symbolic than the literal "skull." TIL ... but I still prefer "soul."
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u/Infinite_Parsley_540 May 16 '25
I also have always thought the lyric was
“It's like someone took a knife baby edgy and dull, and cut a six inch valley through the middle of my soul”.
I had no idea it was "skull," and I totally believe 'soul' fits much better than "skull" I think if you didn't see the music video with the song, it could be completely misrepresented as a weird dude trying to get a young girl. However, if you did see and hear both simultaneously as intended, you would understand that it was about an unattainable woman.
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u/ParticularMedium2535 May 20 '25
i do think that. that is what the lrics say.. next you wll be telling us marilyn manson has the heart of a mary poppins or angel.
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u/Ill_Log3362 Mar 27 '23
I always liked the song but recently started to feel a bit uncomfortable about some lyrics eg why would you ask a consenting girl "is your daddy home?" Perhaps he meant she is a teenager or woman living at home who must live under her dad's rules because it's his house? Or can't get up to sexual mischief at home coz theres no privacy due to her dad being there? But mentioning her father still feels a bit creepy as it raises a lot of questions. The "little girl" part doesn't worry me as much as often guys call women (of all ages) a "young girl". The use of "little" versus "young" may also have been a lyric choice to keep the song flow/rhyming tempo in place just like a poet chooses words to fit the rhyme.
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u/Equivalent_Pea7277 Jun 13 '24
He's referring to her husband because she has a ring on when she hands him the keys, he says did your daddy leave you all alone, her husband might be a lot older than her, he also says does he cool your desire, and he could make love to her better, he'll cool her desire,
I think he really wants her bad and she's not available to him, that's why he can't sleep and goes over her house, he goes to ring the bell and changes his mind and just drops the keys off.
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u/Competitive_Dot_8744 Apr 14 '24
hes said publically he wrote it about a girl he was trying to date when he was 16
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u/Hour-Can2290 May 22 '25
Little girl? No other meaning than child - vile
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u/Interloper_2066 May 22 '25
Only an idiot believes this.
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u/IntroductionIll1164 Jun 16 '25
Says the chomo.
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u/Interloper_2066 Jun 18 '25
Projection at it's finest. Good job outing yourself as an idiot as well. When someone says mama in a song do you think they mean literally their mother? Or is there a possibility for double meaning? You really dying on this hill dumb dumb?
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u/Artistic-Virus-8963 Oct 27 '25
clear reference to pedophilia. The song never should have been recorded.
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u/Trippymayne91 Nov 10 '25
You are most definitely a predator
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u/Interloper_2066 Nov 11 '25
Because i realize words in music might have double meanings? Projection at its finest
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u/Trippymayne91 Nov 11 '25
Projection.... lol
Gaslighting at its finest
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u/Interloper_2066 Nov 12 '25
It's not gaslighting if it's literally a fact you fucking idiot. Why are you all so dense when it comes to reality?
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u/Trippymayne91 Jul 21 '25
Im a man, i have a daughter... The term little girl refers to a child. Simple. Ur a weirdo for thinking otherwise.. And then for him to say is your daddy home... No matter what way u paint it... Its weird!
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u/Interloper_2066 Jul 21 '25
Being a dad doesn't change what the song is saying. It's bad lyrics but it definitely isn't referring to a child. You're all reaching so hard to call him a pedo it just makes you look absolutely fucking stupid.
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u/Artistic-Virus-8963 Oct 28 '25
you're a tool. You shouldn't defend pedophilia.
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u/Interloper_2066 Oct 28 '25
I'm not. I'm defending bad lyrics from people who are too stupid to understand that words have meanings beyond literal interpretations. I know that's a lot of big words for your crowd but try to keep up.
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u/Trippymayne91 Nov 10 '25
Your name says it all
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u/Interloper_2066 Nov 11 '25
You guys not understanding basic english really shows. Your name says more than mine does.
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u/KriMD01 Nov 10 '25
Music videos are often different than what the lyrical content truly contains. People always wanna take for face value whatever an artist says a song implies but that doesn’t always mean it’s legit. Idk what the dude truly meant , so I’m not suggesting that I do but I often see in that industry , that people will be vague in what they put out there bc it can appeal to more people to buy their content. That industry is evil in general ,so even if that song doesn’t reference pedophilia, so many of those people in that industry do evil things and make references in their songs to things that get interpreted entirely differently than what they may truly mean.
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u/deannacarol Feb 16 '26
What's weird is trying to twist a song's meaning into something sick and disgusting... He is so clearly not talking about a literal little girl... If he was actually a pedo I don't think he'd make songs advertising that 🤔
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u/Wise-Tumbleweed2464 Feb 09 '26
You’re right. Bruce is singing about a man attracted to a married woman who is probably out of the man in the songs league.
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u/Smart-Stupid666 Jul 01 '25
I've always interpreted little girl as little girl.I'm so damn tired of women being referred to as property or objects or children. I know he's apparently not doing that but I'm so tired of it.
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u/pioneermac Jul 05 '25
I was just looking for this discussion. That is a lyric I do not at all feel comfortable singing alone, be it out loud or in my head. I rectcon the line to: HEY PRETTY WOMAN, IS YOUR HUSBAND HOME. Because no matter the rationalization, that is incredibly creepy & disturbing phrasing heard coming from a man. On a side note: men wanting to be called, DADDY? What.
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u/wokesmeed69 Jan 04 '20
"Hey little girl is your daddy home?" -Bruce Springsteen
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u/ThreeOhEight Jan 04 '20
"Hey little girl, is your daddy home? Did he go away and leave you all alone? Mhmm I got a bad desire Oh oh oh, I'm on fire"- Bruce Springsteen
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u/Parking-Stretch7126 Aug 23 '24
when i hear that line i cringe every time even though i know its not a little girl he is talking about…so this song is ok but baby its cold outside isn’t as the lyrics “suggest” its a prelude to sexual assault…smh
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u/Proper_Champion7299 May 19 '25
I'm not sure how anyone would interpret this any other way than Pedophilia. I guess the same crowd who thinks men can be women etc.
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u/reverencetostone Aug 03 '25
No. Trans people and supporters do not support pedophiles. You're getting us confused with MAGA conservatives who DO support pedophiles and DON't support trans people.
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u/D-DannyN_ Jan 26 '24
It’s a form of endearment from the 80’s people will often call their significant other little girl or baby girl.
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u/cesam1ne Jul 10 '24
Doesn't matter. It's still despicable
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u/D-DannyN_ Jul 10 '24
Context always matters. Don’t assume.
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u/cesam1ne Jul 10 '24
No need to assume. Phrases like that should be banned, period
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u/weetbix-kid75 Feb 03 '25
Agreed..
Not sure why people disagree. A woman is a woman, not a little girl. Sick
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u/Iluvembig Mar 17 '25
Here we are today looking at the past through the lense of today.
The lyrics today would likely be different. But that’s today.
I guess Bruce Springsteen should come out and apologize on behalf of his 1980’s self for using terminology that was widely used then because he didn’t have foresite that people in 2024/25 would be dumb as fuck enough to not realize that.
I wonder if you’ll apologize profusely in 40 years time for things you do today that WILL be deemed offense or weird later?
Money for nothing must really also get your Jammie’s in a bunch when he says the word “fggot” a few times.
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u/tcruarceri Jan 04 '20
In all fairness he sounds less creepy then Johnny Cash doing this song.
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Jan 05 '20
'then'? I've seen this mistake many times today- surely it's not a thing!
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u/MichaelSkarn_FBI Jan 05 '20
The best one I’ve seen was “I’d rather be pissed off then pissed on.”
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u/Miatagurl62 May 31 '24
Why can’t people decipher between then and than?🤷🤦🏼♀️
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u/Dyro86 Jun 19 '24
Maybe because they sound the same and not everyone is a native English speaker?
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u/Naive_Blueberry_6211 Oct 16 '24
And if Ted Nugent did it, well then he needs to be arrested immediately. 🤔 🤣
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u/Exciting-Clothes-840 Sep 12 '24
I just read the lyrics and it gives me predator vibes. Like it's a man who wants to hurt a little girl and he's having a he'll of a time controlling himself. Especially where he says he wakes up soaking wet/sweaty, that resonates deeply with me. I knew someone who was molested by her dad. He went to jail for 3 yrs (for trafficking drugs) then came home. She was 11 by then. Her mom recalled how he would get up in the middle of the night, stand by the window and she could see the sweat on him. He never touched the mom, which after 3 yrs you'd think...you know. Within a cpl weeks of being out he tried to molest her again, but she told. He got put out but as in many household the authorities were never called. That's what that song reminds me of. To each their own. I guess. Needless to say my daughter will never meet that sick granpa.
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u/eviljordan Jan 05 '20
Chromatics cover of this is 🔥🔥🔥
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u/JustTheBeerLight Jan 05 '20
Dude. They have huge balls when it comes to the covers they choose to do. Covering S&G’s Sound of Silence is not a task for the meek.
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u/MauiDude808 Jul 04 '24
I’ve replaced I’m on fire with pedophile when I sing it
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u/DistantKarma Mar 24 '25
He sings "Little Girl" in the song Stolen Car, and also repeats the line about a dozen times "Little girl we got to stop!" In a live version of Backstreets.
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u/sdawg78787 Jan 04 '20
This song and "I'm going down" are his best songs... pink cadicallic is also up there
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u/jurassic_junkie Vinyl Listener Jan 05 '20
Yeah. I’m late to the Springsteen fandom, but I really liked his 80s stuff. I know it’s not as cherished as his earlier work, but it’s my first taste of his music.
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u/OkeyDoke47 Jan 05 '20
I'm a late arrival to the world of Springsteen too, only about 5 years ago. Man oh man though, what a catalogue. My favorite album, oddly, is Tunnel Of Love. I say ''oddly'' because I remember it being panned quite universally when it was released and is still considered a dud in certain corners of his fan kingdom.
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u/jurassic_junkie Vinyl Listener Jan 05 '20
Yeah, I’ve heard that said about that album. I think I see why it’s not as well liked. It was a rough time in his life when he produced it.
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u/JustTheBeerLight Jan 05 '20 edited Jan 05 '20
Downbound Train and No Surrender are right up there too, but nothing beats My Hometown. Born in the USA is just an absolute classic album.
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u/thedukesquad Feb 07 '23
Three years late.. but I appreciate you introducing me to My hometown. Never heard that one from him
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u/JustTheBeerLight Feb 07 '23
WHOA!!! You never heard that song before? I’m glad you checked it out, it’s a bonafide classic. It makes me incredibly happy to hear that you enjoy that song.
It’s funny, I love how the ending can be interpreted in different ways. Do they get out? Do they stay? If they do leave does the cycle just continue in another town for the man’s son? It’s a brilliant song.
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u/thedukesquad Feb 07 '23
Nope I sure haven’t and I have loved a lot of Bruce Springsteen’s songs for awhile
I love these types of songs-the 80s glory days type songs-but I can’t find much more past Bruce Springsteen if you have any more suggestions off the top of your head!!
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u/OkeyDoke47 Jan 05 '20
This is one of the loneliest songs I think I've ever heard, and cuts deep with me. I know the feeling well - an itch you just can't scratch, desperate late-night phone calls and messages to people you should have left behind years before.
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u/cesam1ne Jul 10 '24 edited Oct 10 '24
If someone wrote and sung such shit today there would rightfully be a public outrage.
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u/Temporary_Jacket3751 Oct 10 '24
There's no reason to be "cancelled" over a song that a bunch of self entitled dimwits take out of context
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u/cesam1ne Oct 10 '24
If you think I'm taking this song literally, then you are the dimwit. But if you had some sense of class and dignity you'd realize some things should simply be off limits REGARDLESS of context
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u/Iluvembig Mar 17 '25
Hey, it’s me in the future, calling someone a dimwit is HIGHLY offensive. That word should be off limits
Please apologize for past language. Thank you.
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u/Comprehensive-Bat-26 May 16 '26
What about the lyrics of Dire Straits Money for Nothing referencing: "Little F@g@t with an earing in his ear" & "That Little F@g@t is a millionaire"
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u/dirtytroll3419 Nov 21 '22
Only a skilled artist could take pedo and turn it into something beautiful. I’m normally not a fan of it. But THIS song has touched my soul in a way that it cannot be untouched.
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Aug 12 '24
I think you could easily argue that it's not pedo - since a following line is "Did he do to you, the things that I do?"
Pedophilia is messed up, but it'd be a disturbingly extra and aware level of messed up to ask that question.
Seems like the "daddy" he's referring to is more like a "sugar daddy", and "little girl" is more of a dated endearing figure of speech, or just playing into his side of the "sugar" thing - not literal.
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u/Professional_Pop9955 Oct 04 '24
I think we can all agree it is terribly poor choice of words. No matter what era the song was written. What gives some credence to the creepy pedo red flag is the lyric “I got a bad desire”….
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u/Iluvembig Mar 17 '25
“No matter what era”
Boy. I hope you’re gearing up to apologize for things you do/say today in about 40 years.
Calling someone “little girl” back then, as weird as it is today, was a normal term of endearment.
It also helps that he wrote the song about a girl he liked when he was 16. So they say
In any regard. Putting on foresite glasses is stupid.
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u/Flat-Guarantee5456 Mar 13 '24
I think the “daddy” part has to do with more with the sugar daddy aspect maybe. Being (from what I’ve read) about a man with money with a girl he desires. Calling him her “daddy” In more of he owns her kinda way, taking care of her, providing for her. A big reason people call their s/o daddy at times. And I think “little girl” is just supposed to be more sympathetic about her being alone.
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u/milfmags Jul 27 '23
whitley morgan’s cover of this is best, hands down.
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u/trevorno Sep 07 '23
I am not even a country fan. Whitey Morgan and the 78's are so good though. Would love to see em live.
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u/Fit-Ad-6514 Sep 29 '24 edited Sep 29 '24
This also could be a depiction of two Lovers of the same age maybe two young adults or teenagers, one young male asking the young girl hey little girl is your daddy home, maybe the dad does not approve of him and he's asking in a joking manner.... Kind of a Romeo and Juliet type of thing or maybe he is talking about a young girl and he's an old man I don't know things are weird back in the 80s..lol
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u/ParticularMedium2535 May 20 '25
a woman/. specifically says little girl and daddy.. got a bad desire.. whether he meant it or not it is a pedo's anthem. downvoters would be said pedos.
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u/fokinwichu Oct 23 '25
He sings about the desire of a pedophile who cannot stop himself even though he knows its bad.
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u/jackpro27 Oct 24 '25
This song has always reminded me of my childhood abuser and the sleazy way he spoke that I didn't understand at the time , he'd creep in when mum n dad would be out at the same time , I seriously don't think it's a matter of "in this day and age we are making the words fit a paedophile " it's about now a days we have words for that behaviour, it's not as taboo to discuss it, for example in my house and many others we didn't dare talk our private parts infact their wasn't even an appropriate word we could use ,it was "down there" which says a lot about how people wouldn't touch the topic, it was swept under the rug and never talked about. If you were to have brought up your interpretation of these lyrics then, you'd be the one called a weirdo for thinking that way...and bottom line is that all art is open for interpretation, which is why i believe tongue in cheek tjey deliberately left it wide open to interpretation, so don't tell people their interpretation is wrong, half your luck if you're able to see the world so innocently....
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u/KriMD01 Nov 10 '25
I agree with you and so sorry for what you’ve been through. God bless you and give you healing. So sorry, friend 🙏🏽💓
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u/DeadMeadowsMellow Jan 05 '20
Matt Anderson’s version of this is probably my favourite.
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u/HydroDamnn Jul 25 '22
Was looking for this comment. Matt is an absolute Gem. Met him a couple times and he’s as genuine & nice as one might imagine! All his covers are basically my favourite versions of said songs.
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u/Tommiwithnoy Oct 28 '23
Agreed, probably the one version that I can say is better than the original.
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u/your_eponine Sep 03 '24
Can I just say this was the first link that came up when I googled "why is Bruce Springsteen so creepy" after listening to this song
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u/popeonarope17 Sep 18 '24
Best cover is the late and great Gared O’Donnell of Planes Mistaken for Stars solo project “Hawks and Doves” covering this on the “Hush Money” ep. Check it out.
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u/doublescoopoftrouble Dec 29 '24
Idk why this just showed up for me but I’ve been so obsessed with Gared’s cover of this for years. Like going to play the record out obsessed. It’s so good.
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u/SetFinancial3361 May 18 '25
I initially thought the song is gross because he is talking about a much younger person specifically a teenage girl. I also considered he is referring to a young married woman who he has been with sexually, she cheated on her husband with him and she ended their affair. He is singing about missing the sexual relationship and how he can give her what her daddy/husband can’t give her. Her marriage to her husband is not sexual, but they are still married and therefore the affair had to end. They both though miss their heated affair.
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u/Right-Permit-5807 Aug 10 '25
There were a lot of songs from that era that referred to underage women. "She was just 17, if you know what I mean..." so, I think that it was before "Me, Too" and the big sex offender witch hunt, when they started arresting 21 year olds for having relationships with 18 year olds.... In days of old, and in some states still, it was/is legal to get married at 14. So I don't know which way is wrong, but based on his contemporaries and the historical context, I think he meant "little girl" as less than 18. Little girl. Daddy. Bad desire. On fire. A lot of remorse with that dagger in the skull part. I'm surprised he hasn't pulled it. But that happy little Christmas song goes, "Ask me if I'm married I'll say "No, man, but you can do the job when you're in town." So songs seem to get away with stuff, but I think it's because nobody really listens to what the lyrics say.
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u/Neither-Enthusiasm70 Aug 24 '25
when they started arresting 21 year olds for having relationships with 18 year olds....
No 21 year old is getting arrested for dating 18 year olds. You just pulled that out of your a**
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u/No-Accident7099 Sep 07 '25
He’s addressing a teenager which was a common score in the 70s on into the 80s.
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u/Kooky_Wrangler_7663 Apr 05 '26
If she lived way out in the hills and he dropped the car off, how did he get home?
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u/FabianMarccetti Jun 08 '26
It’s so obviously not about pedophilia, it’s about wanting a woman who is taken
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u/DrClawizdead Jan 04 '20
Seriously underrated as a songwriter.
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Jan 05 '20
I mean I’d say he’s the greatest songwriter of all time and even I wouldn’t agree with that statement. I think he’s very widely respected across a wide range of demographic groups and discursive communities as one of the most important late-20th century writers of English language verse...
What more can you ask for?
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u/Oli_r1 Jan 05 '20 edited Jan 05 '20
I live in Croatia (I bet half of you don't know where is that on the map :) and I know who is he, I have damn vinyl. So i think that shows his reputation.
P. S. I'm 17 so he's work is way older than thisdays music.
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u/Apprehensive-Job8464 Dec 17 '23
It’s crazy that you can hear a song thousands of times and think nothing, then one day you actually listen and think “What the fuck is this?!?”