Oldies are good. I like 'em. Classic rock, pop and soul just makes me happy. Every now and again I’m listening to some old song that I’ve listen and sang to for decades and think “What the hell does that mean?” and then I come here and ask. This time it’s Manford Mann’s Blinded By the Light (written by Bruce Springsteen, if I’m not mistaken).
O.K., I know he doesn’t say 'wrapped up like a douch", yet ‘wrapped up like a duece’ doesn’t make much sense either. And what with hurlyburlies and calliopes crashing to the ground-- what does it all mean?
As the wikipedia article says, “cut loose like a deuce” is one of Springsteen’s many street racing references. It refers to the Ford “deuce coupe” of the same type as that driven by the character John Milner in American Graffiti, and of the type immortalized by the Beach Boys in the song “Little Deuce Coupe”
On the VH-1 Songwriters show featuring Bruce, he commenting on how Mann blew the line - but that Bruce benefitted because so many kids thought he was saying something dirty that it increased the buzz and sales that the song got.
He also re-stated the point spoke- made - it was meant to be about a deuce coupe…
I heard a well-known NY metro area DJ (I forget who) say that early in his career, for some songs Springsteen just tried to cram as many words into the lyrics as possible, and meaning was secondary. The lyrics to “Growing Up” are fairly wordy too.
