“Pullin’ Out of Here to Win”: The Narrative Flexibility of “Thunder Road”

Abstract

In Conceptualizing Music, Lawrence Zbikowski uses the idea of conceptual blending to build upon Nicholas Cook’s understanding of song as multimedia, explaining how the music and lyrics of a song can work together to create a more complex narrative than either component could on its own. While Zbikowski’s examples are taken from German art song, the present project applies this idea of conceptual blending to popular music, investigating how different recordings of a song can alter its narrative. I examine three versions of Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,” all recorded in 1975: an early live performance in February, the studio recording released in August, and a later live performance in October. This investigation of “Thunder Road” highlights an interesting issue present in popular music: the artist can continue to tweak his/her/their arrangement of a song in live performances, drastically altering the song’s narrative. Springsteen’s alterations to the song’s music and lyrics over the course of 1975 create three distinct protagonists, each negotiating their own relationship the desire to escape from a small town and find a better life on the open road.