Thursday, May 22, 2025

Teenage sexuality in three Bruce Springsteen songs

Three title songs of Bruce Springsteen albums depict teenage sexuality. In "Born to Run" (1975), the speaker tries to persuade Wendy to have sex: "Wendy, let me in, I wanna be your friend." The song's sexual persuasion centers on the image of "hemi-powered" cars: "[...] strap your hands across my engines". Amidst the verbal, adolescent energy of the earlier "Blinded by the Light" (1973), a first risk of teenage sexuality arises when a boy complains he "caught the clap." Then "The River" (1980) addresses the ultimate risk of teenage sexual energy: "Well I got Mary pregnant, and that was all she wrote." With pregnancy, that energy is lost to adult responsibilities. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 22 May 2025) 

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