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Bruce Springsteen Song Question Straight Time

PJammer4lifePJammer4life Los Angeles Posts: 2,656
edited June 2008 in Other Music
At the end of the song Straight Time, does he go back to a life of crime??
i get the sawed off shotgun reference, is the smell on his hands the smell of the gunpowder?? then he lays on his pillow and drifts off to a foreign land?? did he kill himself?? kill someone else?? please enlighten me on the end of the song..
Bridge Benefit 1994, San Francisco 1995, San Diego 1995 1 & 2, Missoula 1998, Los Angeles 2000, San Diego 2000, Eddie Vedder/Beck 2/26/2002, Santa Barbara 2003, Irvine 2003, San Diego 2003, Vancouver 2005, Gorge 2005, San Diego 2006, Los Angeles 2006 1 & 2, Santa Barbara 2006, Eddie Vedder 4/10/08, Eddie Vedder 4/12/08, Eddie Vedder 4/15/08, 7/12/2008, SF 8/28/09, LA 9/30/09, LA 10/1/09, LA 10/06/09, LA 10/07/09, San Diego 10/09/09, Eddie Vedder 7/6/2011, Eddie Vedder 7/8/2011, PJ20 9/3/2011, PJ20 9/4/2011, Vancouver 9/25/2011, San Diego 11/21/13, LA 11/24/13, Ohana 9/25/21, Ohana 9/26/21, Ohana 10/1/21, EV 2/17/22, LA Forum 5/6/22, LA Forum 5/7/22, EV 10/1/22, EV 9/30/23
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  • PJammer4lifePJammer4life Los Angeles Posts: 2,656
    no one?
    Bridge Benefit 1994, San Francisco 1995, San Diego 1995 1 & 2, Missoula 1998, Los Angeles 2000, San Diego 2000, Eddie Vedder/Beck 2/26/2002, Santa Barbara 2003, Irvine 2003, San Diego 2003, Vancouver 2005, Gorge 2005, San Diego 2006, Los Angeles 2006 1 & 2, Santa Barbara 2006, Eddie Vedder 4/10/08, Eddie Vedder 4/12/08, Eddie Vedder 4/15/08, 7/12/2008, SF 8/28/09, LA 9/30/09, LA 10/1/09, LA 10/06/09, LA 10/07/09, San Diego 10/09/09, Eddie Vedder 7/6/2011, Eddie Vedder 7/8/2011, PJ20 9/3/2011, PJ20 9/4/2011, Vancouver 9/25/2011, San Diego 11/21/13, LA 11/24/13, Ohana 9/25/21, Ohana 9/26/21, Ohana 10/1/21, EV 2/17/22, LA Forum 5/6/22, LA Forum 5/7/22, EV 10/1/22, EV 9/30/23
  • AlBorlandAlBorland Posts: 117
    i'm off to listen to the song now. seeing this reply you probably think someone has an answer...sorry.
    Skeletons ain't got nowhere to stick their money.
  • PJammer4lifePJammer4life Los Angeles Posts: 2,656
    AlBorland wrote:
    i'm off to listen to the song now. seeing this reply you probably think someone has an answer...sorry.


    true lol ..eagerly awaiting your interpretation...
    Bridge Benefit 1994, San Francisco 1995, San Diego 1995 1 & 2, Missoula 1998, Los Angeles 2000, San Diego 2000, Eddie Vedder/Beck 2/26/2002, Santa Barbara 2003, Irvine 2003, San Diego 2003, Vancouver 2005, Gorge 2005, San Diego 2006, Los Angeles 2006 1 & 2, Santa Barbara 2006, Eddie Vedder 4/10/08, Eddie Vedder 4/12/08, Eddie Vedder 4/15/08, 7/12/2008, SF 8/28/09, LA 9/30/09, LA 10/1/09, LA 10/06/09, LA 10/07/09, San Diego 10/09/09, Eddie Vedder 7/6/2011, Eddie Vedder 7/8/2011, PJ20 9/3/2011, PJ20 9/4/2011, Vancouver 9/25/2011, San Diego 11/21/13, LA 11/24/13, Ohana 9/25/21, Ohana 9/26/21, Ohana 10/1/21, EV 2/17/22, LA Forum 5/6/22, LA Forum 5/7/22, EV 10/1/22, EV 9/30/23
  • Strangest TribeStrangest Tribe Posts: 2,502
    he went back to a life of crime... probably had to kill someone....

    to him "living the straight life" is a dream that he knows will never happen, but he can always dream about it.... but nobody trusts him, not even his old lady....
    the Minions
  • Bummy213Bummy213 Posts: 25
    Yeah pretty much he went back into the life of crime like the poster above said. Everyone still judges him by what he once was...a criminal and he never truly becomes free. Finally at the end he loses all hope and goes back to the life of crime..probably killing someone (perhaps his wife who didn't trust him).
  • GetALifeGetALife Posts: 563
    ...I always interpreted it as dreaming of the (another) life (maybe the life of crime) that he got used to...staying in the new life, bearing the stigma, shame... I mean "lay my head down on my pillow and drifting off into foreign lands" ... that's a description and a metaphor of someone escaping reality by dreaming... he probably WANTS to be NEW ... but the sad truth is that "you can't anymore than half-free" ... the old life still throwing its shades over his new life with his wife distrusting him and other people trying to get him back into crime... ...or do you think that the basement scene is the starting point of a new crime from which he can't get the smell from his hands afterwards? ...
    2000: Hamburg
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    2007: Munich * Düsseldorf
    2009: Berlin * Manchester * London
    2010: Dublin * Belfast * Berlin
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    ~~~

    “It is curious that while good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to bring those children into existence in the first place.”
    ― David Benatar - Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence


  • PJammer4lifePJammer4life Los Angeles Posts: 2,656
    http://www.last.fm/music/Bruce+Springsteen/_/Straight+Time

    Take a listen...

    Straight Time by* Bruce Springsteen ( posters || see lyrics in plain text)


    (from the album 'The Ghost Of Tom Joad')

    Got out of prison back in '86 and I found a wife
    Walked the clean and narrow
    just tryin' to stay out and stay alive
    Got a job at the rendering factory,it ain't gonna make me rich
    In the darkness before dinner comes
    Sometimes I can feel the itch
    I got a cold mind to go tripping across that thin line
    I'm sick of doin straight time

    My uncles at the evenin' table makes his living runnin' hot cars
    Slips me a hundred dollar bill, says
    "Charlie, you best remember who your friends are."
    I got a cold mind to go tripping across that thin line
    I ain't makin' straight time

    Eight years in, it feels like you're gonna die
    But you get used to anything
    Sooner or later it becomes your life

    Kitchen floor in the evening, tossin' my little babies high
    Mary's smilin', but she watches me out of the corner of her eye
    Seems you can't get any more than half free
    I step out onto the front porch, and suck the cold air deep inside of me
    Got a cold mind to go tripping cross that thin line
    I'm sick of doin' straight time

    In the basement, huntin' gun and a hacksaw
    Sip a beer, and thirteen inches of barrel drop to the floor

    Come home in the evening, can't get the smell from my hands
    Lay my head down on the pillow
    And, go driftin' off into foreign lands
    Bridge Benefit 1994, San Francisco 1995, San Diego 1995 1 & 2, Missoula 1998, Los Angeles 2000, San Diego 2000, Eddie Vedder/Beck 2/26/2002, Santa Barbara 2003, Irvine 2003, San Diego 2003, Vancouver 2005, Gorge 2005, San Diego 2006, Los Angeles 2006 1 & 2, Santa Barbara 2006, Eddie Vedder 4/10/08, Eddie Vedder 4/12/08, Eddie Vedder 4/15/08, 7/12/2008, SF 8/28/09, LA 9/30/09, LA 10/1/09, LA 10/06/09, LA 10/07/09, San Diego 10/09/09, Eddie Vedder 7/6/2011, Eddie Vedder 7/8/2011, PJ20 9/3/2011, PJ20 9/4/2011, Vancouver 9/25/2011, San Diego 11/21/13, LA 11/24/13, Ohana 9/25/21, Ohana 9/26/21, Ohana 10/1/21, EV 2/17/22, LA Forum 5/6/22, LA Forum 5/7/22, EV 10/1/22, EV 9/30/23
  • PJammer4lifePJammer4life Los Angeles Posts: 2,656
    ...or do you think that the basement scene is the starting point of a new crime from which he can't get the smell from his hands afterwards? ...[/quote]


    You get used to anything..sooner or later it becomes your life..he's tired of the straight life with his family..misses the life of crime..saws off the hunting gun with the hacksaw..13 inches of barrel drop to the floor...

    either he has killed someone..or used his gun..then he dreams of the peaceful life....

    or it could be he just went hunting..and dreams of his former life of crime..since his new life is boring him...

    its open to interpretation i guess
    Bridge Benefit 1994, San Francisco 1995, San Diego 1995 1 & 2, Missoula 1998, Los Angeles 2000, San Diego 2000, Eddie Vedder/Beck 2/26/2002, Santa Barbara 2003, Irvine 2003, San Diego 2003, Vancouver 2005, Gorge 2005, San Diego 2006, Los Angeles 2006 1 & 2, Santa Barbara 2006, Eddie Vedder 4/10/08, Eddie Vedder 4/12/08, Eddie Vedder 4/15/08, 7/12/2008, SF 8/28/09, LA 9/30/09, LA 10/1/09, LA 10/06/09, LA 10/07/09, San Diego 10/09/09, Eddie Vedder 7/6/2011, Eddie Vedder 7/8/2011, PJ20 9/3/2011, PJ20 9/4/2011, Vancouver 9/25/2011, San Diego 11/21/13, LA 11/24/13, Ohana 9/25/21, Ohana 9/26/21, Ohana 10/1/21, EV 2/17/22, LA Forum 5/6/22, LA Forum 5/7/22, EV 10/1/22, EV 9/30/23
  • born2runqtborn2runqt Posts: 109
    This song always intrigues me.

    I believe the urge to do something bad is there at all times, and he resists but hates it. Nothing definitive at the end. Turns a regular hunting gun into a could-be weapon. Never carries it through - just wonderin' about it, I think.

    That's my interpretation as a long-time Bruce fanatic.
    ...tramps like us...

    I miss you Daddy.....10/12/07
  • Strangest TribeStrangest Tribe Posts: 2,502
    no...he cut that barrel off so he could conceal the shotgun...not go hunting.

    I interpret it that he comes from a family that's in crime...he can't escape it.

    he can't get the smell (of crime) off his hands... it's like Eddie saying "...that shit don't wash off..."
    the Minions
  • born2runqtborn2runqt Posts: 109
    Strangest Tribe wrote:
    no...he cut that barrel off so he could conceal the shotgun...not go hunting.

    I interpret it that he comes from a family that's in crime...he can't escape it.

    he can't get the smell (of crime) off his hands... it's like Eddie saying "...that shit don't wash off..."

    right - that's what I say
    ...tramps like us...

    I miss you Daddy.....10/12/07
  • PJammer4lifePJammer4life Los Angeles Posts: 2,656
    Strangest Tribe wrote:
    no...he cut that barrel off so he could conceal the shotgun...not go hunting.

    I interpret it that he comes from a family that's in crime...he can't escape it.

    he can't get the smell (of crime) off his hands... it's like Eddie saying "...that shit don't wash off..."

    Cool interpretation.thanks..
    Bridge Benefit 1994, San Francisco 1995, San Diego 1995 1 & 2, Missoula 1998, Los Angeles 2000, San Diego 2000, Eddie Vedder/Beck 2/26/2002, Santa Barbara 2003, Irvine 2003, San Diego 2003, Vancouver 2005, Gorge 2005, San Diego 2006, Los Angeles 2006 1 & 2, Santa Barbara 2006, Eddie Vedder 4/10/08, Eddie Vedder 4/12/08, Eddie Vedder 4/15/08, 7/12/2008, SF 8/28/09, LA 9/30/09, LA 10/1/09, LA 10/06/09, LA 10/07/09, San Diego 10/09/09, Eddie Vedder 7/6/2011, Eddie Vedder 7/8/2011, PJ20 9/3/2011, PJ20 9/4/2011, Vancouver 9/25/2011, San Diego 11/21/13, LA 11/24/13, Ohana 9/25/21, Ohana 9/26/21, Ohana 10/1/21, EV 2/17/22, LA Forum 5/6/22, LA Forum 5/7/22, EV 10/1/22, EV 9/30/23
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