Day After Day #241: Candy's Room

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Candy's Room (1978)

Bruce Springsteen is an American phenomenon. For nearly 50 years, he's been massively popular with his tales of working class life. I appreciate his body of work, but I've never been a huge fan. That said, I know a large number of his songs by virtue of hearing them on the radio constantly and by and large, I like them. But I never felt the need to buy a Springsteen album (I've taped or burned a few over the years). I even saw Springsteen when he got the E Street Band back together for a tour in 1999 and it was a fun show (again, somebody offered me a ticket). It's just that he's never been an essential artist for me.

Coming off the breakthrough success of 1975's Born to Run, Springsteen was embroiled in a series of legal disputes with former manager Mike Appel and wasn't able to release another album for three years. But instead of making another Born to Run, he opted for a darker look at suburban life. Springsteen was inspired by Steinbeck novels, Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie, and newer, rawer artists like the Sex Pistols, Clash and Elvis Costello. The sound leaned more into hard rock guitar and away from the sweeping sound of Born to Run.

Darkness on the Edge of Town didn't sell as well as Born to Run, but it hit #5 on the Billboard album chart and had some singles that did okay: "Prove It All Night," "Badlands" and "The Promised Land." But the song that I immediately was drawn to was "Candy's Room." It wasn't a big single for him, so I probably didn't hear it until a few years later on a rock block weekend or something. 

"Candy's Room" is the result of two songs, "Candy's Boy" and "The Fast Song," being combined into one; it's the tale of a prostitute and one of her jealous clients, who feels he has more to offer her than the rest of her well-off johns. It's very unlike one of Bruce's bombastic hits like "Born to Run" or "Jungleland," instead beginning quietly with just piano and Max Weinberg lightly tapping his hi-hats as Springsteen numbly intones the first verse. 

"In Candy's room, there are pictures of her heroes on the wall/But to get to Candy's room, you gotta walk the darkness of Candy's hall/Strangers from the city call my baby's number and they bring her toys/When I come knocking, she smiles pretty, she knows I wanna be Candy's boy/There's a sadness hidden in that pretty face/A sadness all her own from which no man can keep Candy safe."

The band fully kicks in as the narrator describes when he's alone with her.

"We kiss, my heart rushes through my brain/And the blood rushes in my veins/The fire rushes towards the sky/And we go driving, driving deep into the night/I go driving deep into the light in Candy's eyes/She says, 'Baby, if you wanna be wild/You got a lot to learn, close your eyes/Let them melt, let them fire, let them burn'/'Cause in the darkness, there'll be hidden worlds that shine/When I hold Candy close, she makes those hidden worlds mine."

Springsteen provides hot lead guitar, which is unusual for a Bruce song, as Candy speaks. But he soon realizes that even though he can't give her expensive gifts, he has a special connection with her. Or so he believes.

"She has fancy clothes and diamond rings/She has men who give her anything she wants/But they don't see/That what she wants is me/Oh, and I want her so/I'll never let her go, no no no/She knows that I'd give/All that I've got to give/All that I want, all that I live/To make Candy mine/Tonight."

There are other interpretations of the song, that it's just a poor guy trying to win the affections of a rich girl, but the "john in love with a hooker" angle makes more sense to me. Whatever the case, it's a stirring song both lyrically and musically, and it's all wrapped up in under 3 minutes. 

The rest of the album is strong as well, with standouts including "Adam Raised a Cain," "Prove It All Night" and the title track. It's my favorite Springsteen album by far.

After a successful tour that included three-hour shows and different setlists, the band established itself as one of the premier live acts in rock. Springsteen followed it up with The River, a double album that went to #1. He then went in another direction with 1982's Nebraska, a stark, mostly acoustic folk album. And then came Born in the USA, which made Springsteen a megastar.

Springsteen turns 74 in a few weeks and he's still touring with the E Street Band, playing to sold out arenas all around the world. His recorded output since the '90s has been a mixed bag, but he continues to be one of the biggest artists going. I've got nothing but respect for the guy, but I prefer scruffy efforts like Darkness and Nebraska to his big albums.