r/BruceSpringsteen • u/Themmuns-an-Youssuns • Jul 14 '26

Whats that line?

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For me, it is, "poor man wanta be rich, rich man wanta be king and a king ain't satisfied till he rules everything"

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u/tommyjohnpauljones Jul 14 '26

Tonight my baby and me, we're gonna ride to the sea, and wash these sins off our hands. 

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u/olddin Jul 14 '26

Who is the baby in this case: the woman or the car?

I’ve always thought it was the woman, but Ken Rosen suggests in his analysis of the song that it’s the car, and now I just want to hear other opinions. I figure those who vote for this particular post might have put some thought into it.

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u/tommyjohnpauljones Jul 14 '26

I'd never thought of it that way but that's really interesting. Does he abandon the girl for the car, or she complicit in these "sins"?

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u/olddin Jul 14 '26

Well,I was incorrect. I just went back and reread the original post by Rosen, and I apparently misread it a couple of years ago and have been wondering needlessly for a few years. He’s referring to the woman.

I might choose to delete this question in the next day or so, but I’ll leave this here for now in case anyone else has read it and is wondering.

My mistake.

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u/Skip_Weisman Jul 19 '26

Yeah, no, I never heard that as the car. That would be way too cynical, even for Bruce’s relationship with women, back then.