#springsteen birthday extravaganza 2k19

[janiedean]

could you write ‘this is your sword’ with j/b in canon? with a brienne becoming lady lannister? thank youuuu

HELLO ANON LET’S DO THIS ALSO HAPPY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN BIRTHDAY! :D [this is your sword, for reference]

--

He wishes he wasn’t fidgeting.

He wishes he was. But he is, and he hates it, he hates the way his left hand is clenching around his sword’s pommel

(he should really change the name, Widow’s Wail doesn’t fit it, not at all, if it ever did)

as he stands in the melting snow, in Winterfell’s courtyard, and he can’t believe -

“Lannister, are you going to faint?” Lord Davos asks from his side. Thankfully he keeps his voice low.

“Hopefully not,” he says, even if he feels like he will.

The sun is shining over his head - it’s not warm yet, not spring, but the weather’s thawing into it. He glances at Sansa Stark standing on the other side of the path leading to the heart tree, feeling the weight of the pin resting over his heart, wondering how the hell he ended up appointed Hand of the King after Daenerys Targaryen decided to go back to Essos and relinquished her claim after King’s Landing burned and Cersei -

He did want to go back for a fleeting moment. When he heard, he - he did, even if thinking about it felt like staring into an abyss, but a familiar one. One that he had stared into all his life, and he had almost gone, almost, had gathered up his things as his stomach ate on itself, a voice that sounded like Cersei’s in his head saying that they were born together and they should have died together, he didn’t deserve the warmth of Brienne’s bed, he didn’t, he didn’t -

“Seven hells,” Tyrion tells him, dragging him out of that chain of thoughts, “you look like you are about to faint. And she’s about to come out, so maybe you should worry about this instead.”

He doesn’t wait for Jaime to answer and thrusts a folded cloak inside his arms - Jaime catches it with his left and his stump, he’s not wearing the golden hand, he hasn’t for months by now, and he realizes it’s way heavier than he had expected. He glances down at it, but it’s folded and only notices that there are sapphires woven inside the cloth.

“Tyrion, what -”

“As heir to Casterly Rock,” Tyrion grins, “since she is about to become Lady Lannister, I spoke with her and decided to... spend some of Father’s precious gold wisely. Also, the clasp should give you less trouble than a normal one,” he finishes, cryptically, and says nothing more.

Jaime holds the cloak to his chest and looks back at the path - there aren’t many guests but there are the ones who matter, and after King’s Landing was destroyed this is the temporary capital, so they’re marrying here, of course they are -

Stay, she had told him, reaching out for his hands both real and fake, grabbing them so gently, and he had looked up at her and she was holding on to them so tightly and suddenly he knew he didn’t want to, and that voice wasn’t so insistent any more, and so he had stayed and he asked her the next day, will you marry me, and she hadn’t said yes for a fortnight but then she had, and -

Suddenly, the entire crowd goes silent as he hears footsteps coming from the curve of the path, and a moment later Brienne is walking up towards him with Jon Snow at her side giving her out because her father couldn’t make the journey here and it seemed appropriate that the King in person would give her to his Hand when she had been so invaluable during the Long Night, and Jaime -

Jaime feels breathless.

Her hair had grown longer in the last months, as she stopped cutting it, but she usually ties it back with a string. Now it’s loose on her shoulders, expertly styled, not at all braided but still not looking unkempt, and it looks almost blinding under the pale sunlight that bounces against the gold of her earrings - they have a sun and a moon, like Tarth’s sigil, and she’s coming uncloaked, with a long, flowing white dress of soft silk that doesn’t tie at the waist, with those sapphires woven into the sleeves in a flower-y shape similar to the ones he saw on the cloak he’s holding in his hands.

He thinks his lips fall open for a moment as she walks up to him - someone painted her lips redder than usual, and she’s looking down at him with those large, pretty blue eyes of hers, and she’s smiling tentatively and he thinks he’s breathless as he grins back and he whispers that she looks stunning.

She doesn’t contradict him, even if her cheeks go slightly redder.

For a moment they look at each other, then he realizes that there’s no septon in the North, and when Ser Davos asks who gives the bride and if he accepts her, he says readily that he will take this woman 

(and how he wants to, oh how much)

and when she’s asked if she’ll take this man she doesn’t wait before saying that she will, as if there could be no other choice, and Jaime’s hands are shaking as he lets the cloak fall to the ground gently.

Oh.

It’s not - the usual. It’s a kind of that has sleeves and that only has to be tied in the front with an easy enough clasp to work with, and then Jaime realizes that the shoulders are tied with golden lions with a sapphire in each’s mouth and that the front clasp also in the shape of a golden lion.

Gods, Tyrion wasn’t lying when he said he did spend gold on it.

She nods at him, and she turns so that he can put the cloak on her, the hands and arms slipping inside the sleeves easily. She turns so that he can close the clasp with just his left hand, and then he takes a step back, and -

Gods.

The blood red cloak and the gold look perfect on her, like she was made to wear them, but at the same time it’s a long cry from the gowns Cersei favored, so different one couldn’t mistake them for one another if they tried, and his hands are shaking again as holds up his left.

“Wait,” he says. “I think something’s missing.”

“What?” She replies, her voice barely audible. He moves his cloak, revealing Oathkeeper resting on his hip.

“This is your sword,” he says. “It will always be. And I thought... you should wear it,” he says, and her eyes are brimming with unshed happy tears as she takes it from him, holding it in her left hand, her right reaching for his left, threading their fingers together -

“I am hers and she is mine,” he says, loud enough for anyone to hear, barely believing he gets to do that when he thought he never would -, “From this day until my last day.”

“I am his,” she says in a breath, sounding like she can barely believe it herself, “and he is mine, from this day until my last day.”

People are cheering as he stands on his feet to reach for her face and kisses her, and not chastely, and he feels it when her arms encircle his back while she doesn’t let the sword fall, and for a moment it feels like if that is her sword she might be his shield at the end of all things, and gods if the prospect doesn’t stir something warm in his gut -

“Good thing there’s no septon,” Lord Davos says, and at that he realizes that maybe they should get over to the feast already and they’re making a scene -

But Brienne’s not moving and he wants to kiss her some more and the more he feels the red silk of her cloak under his left hand the more he feels warmth rising up in his stomach, I am hers and she is mine, and she’s wearing his colors and the sword he gave her -

He smiles into the kiss.

He thinks they can keep on doing it for a little while longer, and the feast can wait, too, and from the way she’s kissing him back, he thinks Brienne is in full agreement with his plans.

[janiedean]

so admittingly I don't know much about springsteen but your top 5/10 springsteen songs and why?

WELL THEN HERE WE GO (sorry this required a long answer) (also if I start going like ‘this is it bUT IN THIS VERSION NOT IN THAT ONE it’s because actually he has wildly different version of the same song XDDD)

*cough* *drum roll* videos for the first five + links for the others as usual xD

one: the ghost of tom joad

I once ranted about this specific song in detail so here if anyone’s interested, but: it took me years to decide on which one was my favorite overall but then I went for tom joad because it has all. it’s a heartbreaking song that updates one of my favorite ever novels (the grapes of wrath) to current days situations and guys I swear to god the fact that he put to music tom’s speech to his mother in the novel at the end after rehashing the themes in a new light in the rest of it killed me and I want it tattooed, so. tom joad now and always thanks guys. I love this damned song to levels that are embarrassing as hell.

two: no surrender (in the live 75-85 version)

so: no surrender is originally on born in the usa and actually it’s my favorite song from that record regardless - like, it opens side two and I remember that the first time I heard it was on a tape a friend’s dad (haha) had lent me bc he knew I was into bruce and he was too and I turned it to the second side of the tape and played it and I was like holy crap this is it but then I heard the acoustic live version from the following tour and guys. guys. if you ever had friends you fell out of touch with but still remember fondly and/or friendships you know that even if you don’t talk for a while you’ll always be close when you meet again this is.. just… idk it hit me like a punch in the stomach and it never left. I cried every single time he played it live when I went to see him. no regrets. I love this song sfm and the melancholy in the acoustic version just destroys me.

three: for you (acoustic piano version)

I 100% realize this is probably a weird choice for top three, but: this was on his first album and the version on there is pretty damned good - it’s about a guy whose girlfriend tries to commit suicide and reminesces about their relationship - and you’d go like why, but: first of all he has some of his best lines in this (my electric surges free I just sdgsldjl) and the entire last stanza where he goes from where I found you broken at the beach to the end is just a knife into your heart, but this goddamned version here just goes and tears your heart out and stomps on it and I swear if there is one thing I want from bruce is that he plays this in front of me next time I see him live because for now I never managed and just - the slow piano kills me. I love it. the fact that when I asked brian fallon in a tumblr q&a his fave bruce song and he said this specific one just confirmed he’s a true intellectual. ;)

four: drive all night

or: this is the love song. I just. the first time I heard this I fell off the chair or something and it was the studio version which is nowhere near as heartfelt as the live versions and I swear it’s just - it has very lovely lyrics that perfectly balance melancholy and hopeful and don’t make it saccharine, the fucking sax solo destroys me every single goddamned time I hear it and when you get to the end and he says that she has his love heart and soul it’s The Most Heartfelt Thing I Have Ever Heard In My Life Or Close To It and I just, I love drive all night with every inch of my atoms, bye.

five: badlands

I ranted about this extensively yesterday here so I refer you to it for long rant about it, but tldr: this was actually the first bruce song I ever heard knowing it was by bruce - it wasn’t what got me on that train but it still was the first and like… I didn’t understand it for a long time bc my first run-in with bruce was a hit and miss but then I did and like, this song is basically quintessential bruce because it has all his themes rolled up into one, all the good stuff, everything that is good about his music and most of all live it’s a goddamned religious experience. 

so, that was for the top five, but top ten…

six: youngstown (click here for full rant from last year) which was a hard choice but this damned song slays me whether acoustic or electric and I love his use of language and how he built it and how he teaches you things in five minutes pretty much and how the music/mood matches the words in both versions and seems to mean different approaches but still doesn’t change the core of it, and is2g the last two lines and the second stanza and the line he recycled from the mahardige book he inspired himself with when he wrote this are just goddamned out of this world and like this one raised the ladder for years but I just, love it to pieces

seven: rosalita (come out tonight), or: bruce does serious and politics incredibly well but this one is just a delight from beginning to end, it’s fun, I could listen to it for a month without getting tired, it always puts a smile on my face and the entire last part where he tells her to inform her dad he has a record company now so no reason to hate that his daughter is with a moneyless musician is just… so… lovely and fun and lighthearted and I just really love this song a lot ;;

eight: highway patrolman or, there’s no way a top ten bruce songs has no nebraska material from me because nebraska Is A Damn Masterpiece and this one’s my fave off it, but tldr: the utter, absolute way this thing slays you with just voice and guitar and the way he makes you feel about the cop who ends up letting his brother with ptsd from vietnam escape after he accidentally kills someone is out of this world and I just, this one really has a way to make you empathize with the narrator and my heart ;_; (also the movie they made from it which is in that video is really good k viggo mortensen playing the brother with ptsd isn’t leaving me anytime soon)

nine: thunder road (rant attached to the link) or: this one is short and sweet but honest, it’s not The Definitive Love Song To Me just bc drive all night exists. this damned song is a masterpiece in itself. it’s flawless. it has the crescendo, it has the fact that at whichever moment in his life he sings it it works, ‘it’s a town full of losers and I’m pulling out of here to win’ is the most iconic line that ever ended a song or close to it and it’s exactly the kinda love song you wanna hear if you want realistic love song material and just, legendary. okay? legendary.

ten: american skin (41 shots), or: this actually is what got me into springsteen bc I borrowed the live album it was published on originally after my first try with darkness went so-so, I listened to it and was like ‘okay yeah he’s good’, then I got to this one and went like ‘wait a fucking moment this isn’t just good’ (count that I was twelve and understood maybe 1/5th in the english songs I heard), I actually looked it up, went like woah wait aaand listened to it for two weeks straight, bought the record, translated everything by hand, started reading about what the fuck was wrong with the circumstances for which it was written and here I am twenty years later dying over bruce and having been introduced thanks to him to 80% of his country’s societal issues or I’d have had no idea that early in my life. anyway: other than the sentimental value, it’s honestly out of this world good and the live version just nailed it way better than the studio that was released years later and I love bruce a lot, k? k.

thanks for letting me rant ;)

[janiedean]

soo, the lovely @dragonsthough101 asked for a reading playlist for my fic in the darkness on the edge of town (that I not so secretly based on a bunch of springsteen songs) and I’m more than glad to help out ;) I’ll list what songs were involved in each chapter for the improved reading experience - 90% bruce and 10% others ;) all the songs listed either are quoted directly in the text or are discussed (the ones in the last part) or have helped the mood of the piece or have inspired some scene in the chapter in question. have fun!

chapter one:

darkness in the edge of town, bruce springsteen;

candy’s room, bruce springsteen;

chapter two:

atlantic city, bruce springsteen;

(bonus: live version!)

racing in the street, bruce springsteen:

chapter three:

for you (acoustic piano version), bruce springsteen;

night, bruce springsteen;

chapter four:

something in the night, bruce springsteen;

adam raised a cain, bruce springsteen;

the promised land (acoustic version), bruce springsteen;

frankie, bruce springsteen;

chapter five:

because the night, bruce springsteen;

(bonus: you can also try the same song but in patti smith’s more famous version)

all that heaven will allow, bruce springsteen;

chapter six:

ramrod, bruce springsteen;

prove it all night, bruce springsteen;

factory, bruce springsteen;

streets of fire, bruce springsteen;

chapter seven:

badlands, bruce springsteen;

the promised land (studio version), bruce springsteen;

thunder road, bruce springsteen;

chapter eight:

drive all night, bruce springsteen;

proud mary, creedence clearwater revival;

somebody to love, jefferson airplane;

white rabbit, jefferson airplane;

star spangled banner, jimi hendrix;

living proof, bruce springsteen;

born to run, bruce springsteen;

follow that dream, bruce springsteen;

[download] the whole thing if you’d like!

[janiedean]

For the bruce thing !! JoncXBrynden in which Shy JonC is awkward at a gay club until he starts ranting to the barman about Bruce (maybe a trashy cover because the night is playing?) but lo and behold the barman is a Patti stan and they hit it off with flirty bickering *heart*

ty anon! THIS WAS LOVELY AND I’M GLAD TO FILL IT >__> (springsteen-related prompt taking rules here!)

--

Jon is never, ever going to listen to Oberyn in his life.

Or well, at least concerning this matter.

You need to go out, he said. You need to think about other people that aren’t Rhaegar, he said. I’m bringing Arthur and everyone else with if you don’t want to stick out too much, he said. It will be so much fun, he said.

Except that he knows Jon hates clubbing - bars are okay because no one wants to dance as a given -, Jon hates club music, Jon also generally hates gay bars because somehow every time he goes he’s surrounded by people who are way too young for him or never look right and who want to dance and he was told that he liked old people music from his choice in t-shirts when he was still in uni, and Jon also doesn’t believe in hook-ups - he tried that. Didn’t go over well.

Still. He figured he’d say yes, for once.

Of course, everything went as predicted, as in: the place isn’t technically bad but the music is atrocious, there’s too much glitter everywhere, Oberyn and Ellaria found some third person to smooch with for the night, Arthur disappeared with some girl a while ago leaving him with Jaime Lannister who went because Arthur dragged him as he needed to go out too, except that he’s also decidedly not into guys and he was more miserable than Jon. Then they both had a stroke of luck in the sense that Lannister, being way too drunk for anyone’s own liking, had literally stumbled into the next person sitting at the bar, as in this girl taller and with larger shoulders than him who was there with two other friends who also fucked off making out on the dance floor, and who was also decidedly not into other girls, and now they’re making out in a corner and she assured Jon she was sober and she’d bring Lannister home, and she seemed like a nice, reasonable person, so Jon figured they’d be fine.

Now he is stuck at the bar turning people down because like hell he’s going to say yes to someone who calls him daddy without even knowing him - or period, thanks so very much, and he’s drinking a fruity cocktail he’s really not liking when some vaguely familiar music starts. It’s some dance beat that he doesn’t care for, but something about it somehow makes him feel like he’s already heard it. Everyone at the bar jumps into the dance floor, he drinks more of his cocktail that barely even tastes like alcohol -

Take me now, baby here as I am,Hold me close, try and understand -

Wait a moment, Jon thinks.

Desire and hunger is the fire I breathe -

“What the hell,” he says out loud, “is this garbage?”

“I see you’ve been out of the scene for a while?” Someone else asks, as in, the barman, but Jon barely even notices him because he’s at his fourth cocktail, this entire place is killing his will to live, he’s definitely not getting laid and who the fuck thought that a dance version of Because The Night was a good idea?

“I never was in the scene,” he replies, without even caring for who he’s talking to, “and excuse me but what the fuck is that? I mean, fine, no one knows it’s a Springsteen song, whatever, but like, how the hell you take that and turn it into that dance remix garbage? You take a song about how much people yearn for each other with that music and which was written to be played on darned electric guitars and you turn it into this - this trash? What the fresh hell? I already got dragged here but I’m not listening to Springsteen getting hacked with a goddamned hatchet while my ears bleed, for -”

Then he realizes he’s just about ranted at someone he barely even looked at.

“Shit,” he says, “I’m - not sober,” he finishes, lamely enough, and then he looks up at the guy to apologize properly and oh.

The guy is looking at him like he’s amused and not bored or put out by his ranting. He’s also older than him for a change, and if the darned blue flashing lights aren’t completely making Jon see colors that don’t exist, he has a pair of really nice blue eyes, auburn hair with maybe some streaks of grey here and there, a nice, well-kept beard, and -

He has a Patti Smith t-shirt.

“Believe me,” the guy says, “I don’t say it out loud because I work here and whatnot, but if you think my ears aren’t bleeding right now, mate, you’re sorely wrong.”

“Well,” Jon says, “at least her version has dignity.”

“Oh,” the guy smirks back, “dignity now?” He stares at Jon’s shirt - yes it’s an original from the Born in the USA tour he did not attend because he was barely born in the eighties but he found it at a vintage shop - with a slight smile on his face. “That’s a bit heavy to say considering that it’s her song these days.”

“Not disagreeing on it,” Jon says, “but his lyrics are superior as far as I’m concerned and the lack of solos in her version makes it feel too polished. My humble opinion at least.”

“Why does it seem like you have a lot of feelings about the lack of solos?”

The guy is smirking by now, though.

Jon smirks back. He thinks he likes him. Definitely more than he’s liked anyone since he decided it was time to get over Rhaegar.

“Why does it seem like you never experienced hearing them in person?”

“Oh, you’re telling me I need to go see His Almighty Springsteen-ess in the flesh to realize the error of my ways?”

“I’m telling you that after the tenth time you do, it’s religious experience level, just without the usual old, the guilt tripping, the priest making you feel like you should erase yourself from existence and a lot more sweat thrown in the middle.”

“Intriguing,” the bartender says, “let’s say that I’m off shift in half an hour and I’m down with being convinced. What would you say to that?”

Jon glances at the other side of the room. Lannister and the lucky find girl are still locking lips, Oberyn is nowhere to be found, no one else in their group is anywhere to be found, his cellphone is silent.

Well, the point was that he had to meet people, right?

He holds out a hand. “Jon,” he says. “I’m saying I’m amenable to stick another half hour listening to this drivel.”

“Brynden,” the bartender says, shaking it. “And that’s good. If it consoles you, if I ever end up in charge of the music, this crap is getting deleted from the playlist forever.”

Jon decides that maybe he's not going to regret having come here at all.

[janiedean]

Question (actually two questions): what was your favorite part of the hooker AU to write? And what part/chapter was inspired by the largest number of Springsteen songs?

HMMM 

one: the second to last chapter and bits of the last specifically woodstock and the ending-ending but that was because the entire first 50k I couldn’t see the ending XD when I figured it out it got a lot smoother though XD

two: all of that fic is basically like some fried sweet that has been thoroughly put through springsteen-oil and soaked in it really well before actually doing it (bad metaphor but whatever) and I can tell you that you can find in there all of the songs on darkness on the edge of town, thunder road, born to run, frankie and very peripherally mary’s place and probably a couple others BUT the part that was definitely more bruce-inspired (not counting the first chapter which was pretty much candy’s room played straight up dialogue included but it was just one) is the seventh because in order:

the part with brienne in the field was 100% badlands-inspired

the entire proposal to leave I lifted straight from thunder road dialogue included and I regret nothing

there was also something of born to run and the promised land in there

if you went back to candy’s room you’d see that even there I was 100% inspiring myself *cough*

;)

[janiedean]

HELLO ANON, I’m delighted you wanna participate in my week-long springsteen birthday party celebrations!!! and since you took care to leave me such a long, well-put, thought out message that I’m sure you thought I couldn’t wait to read, I decided to talk to you about a truly absolute classic and if you don’t know it I even picked for you one version where he’s hot as hell, isn’t it darling? ;) so, without further ado...

badlands is the opening act of bruce’s fourth (and most likely turning point) record darkness on the edge of town from 1978. it’s one of his truly most known classics, a hell of a concert opener/piece (believe me, I’ve tried it seven times and it was always a mystical experience, you should too!!) and a perfect summary of... pretty much all of his favorite themes. sounds good? believe me, if you ain’t experienced badlands in your life you’re missing something. ;) now, shall we go through the lyrics? (ps: really, listen to it while you read my explanation or you won’t get the full experience :( )

Well, lights out tonight Trouble in the heartland Got a head on collision Smashin' in my guts, man I'm caught in a cross fire That I don't understand

so, we have one of those openings of bruce’s that cold kick you into the scene that imvho are one of his trademark points and I love him dearly for it which immediately projects you into the scene: we’re in the heartland and the lights are out tonight, which means that it’s night and it’s dark and already from the first two lines you can contrast the upbeat rhythm with the utter bleakness of the opening. by the way, if we all failed geography like jon and sansa, this is what we mean with badlands:

and with heartland we mean that part in the US that goes from north dakota/iowa to kansas/missouri roughly, so we can assume that our narrator comes from some small town in center-USA and he’s not enjoying his time there that much. see, two lines and you already have situation, mood and location - this guy knows how to write a song, amrite?

so, other than that, it’s lights out and this guy has a collision in his guts, which makes you immediately think of a car accident inside his body in one of the most tender parts of it/in the part that gets upset when we feel sick first, which is supposed to make you feel his visceral unhappiness at his situation. also, he’s caught in a crossfire ie he feels in the middle of a bunch of different problems that jump at him and he doesn’t understand them, which also means that he hasn’t straightened them out and he doesn’t exactly know what’s wrong with him, but he knows that he has problems and that his life isn’t what he wants.

But there's one thing I know for sure, girl I don't give a damn For the same old played out scenes Baby, I don't give a damn For just the in-betweens Honey, I want the heart, I want the soul I want control right now You better listen to me, baby

so: now he addresses a girl, which means he’s talking to a woman who’s supposedly his love interest, and he tells her he knows one thing at least, which is that... as before we have guessed he’s in some situation of stasis that he dislikes while he feels caught in a bunch of problems he can’t face/figure out/have a grip on, and his visceral reaction to it is that he wants to cut away with all of that, he wants to stop rehashing his old life (the same old played out scenes/just the in-betweens), and he immediately states it as he says that he wants the heart, the soul and control, as in: he wants to have back his feelings (his heart), his life (the soul) that he feels he doesn’t have anymore and mostly he wants control over them, as if until now he’s felt like he didn’t have it and everyone else was taking all the decisions, and he presses to his girl saying that she has to listen to him. seems like he’s decided, right?

Talk about a dream Try to make it real You wake up in the night With a fear so real You spend your life waiting For a moment that just don't come Well, don't waste your time waiting

now, here we have one of the most iconic lines bruce ever put to music (the first four verses) which would deserve treatises, but anyway, for what we can do: he tells her that they have dreams that they shouldn’t forget and that they should try to make them real ie they shouldn’t be there worrying about played out scenes and in-betweens, but then they wake up with a fear so real that they can’t do it, and at this point you feel their fear too because he’s singing in a way that about throws all of that in your face. but then he says you spend your life waiting for a moment that just don’t come and that hits you even more because don’t we all wait to do things/wait for the right moment to experience things/throw ourselves into what we want to do and then it passes and you think it’s gone? yeah, that. and with that he says that we shouldn’t, and we go into the immortal refrain, as in:

Badlands, you gotta live it everyday Let the broken hearts stand As the price you've gotta pay Keep pushin' 'til it's understood And these badlands start treating us good

now: living the badlands every day (look at the above) is obviously a way to say suffering through your life while feeling overwhelmed (don’t you feel overwhelmed just looking at those pictures?) while the broken hearts stand as in, your heart being broken is the price you’ve got to pay because life is shitty, but if you *push until you get it* then the badlands might start treating you good and you might turn your life around. that’s the message, but it becomes even more obvious when you go ahead with the rest:

Workin' in the fields That'll get your back burned Workin' 'neath the wheels 'Til you get your facts learned Baby, I got my facts Learned real good right now You better get it straight, darlin'

so: our narrator has a physically demanding and hard job (working in the fields/’neath the wheels) which causes him physical problems (back burned) and he had to suffer through that to learn his facts real good, which he stresses repeating it twice, and then explains:

Poor man wanna be rich Rich man wanna be king And a king ain't satisfied 'Til he rules everything I wanna go out tonight I wanna find out what I got

admittedly, it’s not the most original moral but it’s because it’s true: poor people want to be rich (of course), the rich never have enough and want to rule over the others (be king) and the kings/rulers/people in power have no satisfaction until they have everything under their rule because their ego is out of control and power breeds power and no one ever has enough of it (seems like grrm likes bruce). our dude, who’s definitely poor and not a king, just wants to go out tonight and find out what he’s got. and what does he have?

Well, I believe in the love that you gave me I believe in the faith that can save me I believe in the hope and I pray That someday it may raise me Above these

so, he has three things: the love his girlfriend gave him so we can suppose she definitely has an agency in this relationship and he didn’t expect her to give it to him, he has faith that he can be saved from his crap life (could be faith in god or the love he feels for her or both) and he has hope and prays that all of this might raise him above the badlands, ie: that the fact that he has love in his life and that love gave him hope might give him the push to leave his crap life behind and get to something better that he desperately yearns for.

Badlands, you gotta live it everyday Let the broken hearts stand As the price you've gotta pay Keep pushin' 'til it's understood And these badlands start treating us good

now you see that the refrain repeated at this point has a new layer added to it, right? now, you should really be listening to the song because that’s when clarence clemons’s immortal sax solo happens and brings you to another dimension and then it slows down before the last part is basically a whole crescendo which believe me in a concert is a mystical experience. also, get ready for one of the Best Lines Bruce Ever Wrote In His Life:

For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive I wanna find one face that ain't looking through me I wanna find one place I wanna spit in the face of these

now: here we get the nail on the head ie he sums up the entire deal in two lines: this song is for the people with a notion deep inside ie a need so bad it’s etched inside them and nothing can carve it out or take it from them that there’s nothing sinful or bad in being glad you’re alive as in, in being glad you are because then you can keep on living and make things better for yourself rather than just give up and die in a life that you hate, and those people should find a face that doesn’t look through them (as in, someone who sees them for who they really are and loves them for it), one place (as in, a place to live that they want to live in), and they should spit in the face of the badlands ie the horrible life they feel like they can’t conquer but that they need to leave behind.

I mean, it’s basically spitting in the face of what hurt you until now and go off to live your life and trying to be happy, what’s to hate about it? and if you listened to that song, you’d know that at this point the crescendo ends and it kicks into the last refrain:

Badlands, you gotta live it everyday Let the broken hearts stand As the price you've gotta pay Keep movin' 'til it's understood And these badlands start treating us good

which is the same as before obviously, but now has three different layers more to it and tops perfectly a gem of a song that is deservedly one of bruce’s most beloved ones by us all fans and that should be more known to the casual listener because it’s truly iconic and speaks to all of us because we all felt like that at some point, didn’t we?

thank you so much for indulging me in my springsteen extravaganza anon! you might find it a little difficult to do it again I fear, but if you find a way I’ll be delighted to find you some other iconic song to dissect. happy early springsteen birthday!!!! :)

[janiedean]

ASOIAF/GOT characters more likely to be into Bruce Springsteen? And would they introduce their partner(s) to his music? (The Badlands analysis kinda made me think of SanSan and JB tbh)

(anon YOU got exactly why I went for that song while I’m sure whoever sent me that ask didn’t congrats! ;) )

SOOOOO: i hc brienne as being ABSOLUTELY pro bruce and she’d absolutely introduce jaime to his stuff and scuse me but jaime would love it and i’ll die on that hill, davos is into bruce and tries to get stannis to get into him for years and then he drags him to a concert and stannis is like ‘... I SEE’, sandor tried to introduce sansa but she only likes the love songs but it’s fine she supports his fanboying anyway, theon ended up being more into bruce than casuallyintobruce!robb who likes him well enough being a bon jovi stan first and foremost, ned and cat met camping outside one of his concerts in the eighties and i’ll die on that hill, jonc and brynden found out they were crazy into bruce after starting to date so they queue together annihilating the youngsters in line, jon thinks he’s too mainstream while ygritte and sam like him and drag him tk concerts he pretends to not like (works if he’s with tormund too) ;)

ETA i forgot but bronn and tyrion are the kind of ppl who argue about what record is best and call each other tasteless over the others’s choice xD

[janiedean]

bruce's birthday! give us dancing in the dark! please!

OKAY HEY sorry for the lateness but I kept it for jbweek and I was late ;) have fun!!

even if we're just dancing in the dark, jaime/brienne, past/implied j/c; S8 fix-it/canon divergence with bonus porn; explicit content/nc17; 3,6k ca;

“I never thought you ever would want me. Not when — you had her. And you’re telling me that even if parts of you wants to go back because you don’t know how to be without her, you want me to help you not to because you’d rather stay if you could choose. Aren’t you?”

“I am,” he admits, his voice dripping in shame.

“And you think I’m hearing just that you want to go back,” she shakes her head.

“What should you be hearing then?”

“I’m hearing that you’d rather stay so much that you actually did tell me instead of disappearing into the night, that’s what I’m hearing. And why wouldn’t I hear you, when I do want you to stay and I think I know what took you to leave King’s Landing in the first place?”