Clarence Clemons – saxophone, backing vocals.Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez – drums, backing vocals.Bruce Springsteen – vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards.Everyone was talking about whether it was deuce or douche.' Apparently Springsteen thought we'd done it deliberately, which we hadn't, so if I ever saw him I'd avoid him and cringe away like a frightened little boy. We just said, 'If it's not a hit, it's not.'īut in the end, it was No.1 in America, and so many people came up to us after and said, 'You know why it made No. Warners in America said, 'You've got to change 'douche', 'cos the Southern Bible belt radio stations think it's about a vaginal douche, and they have problems with body parts down there.' We tried to change it to 'deuce' but then the rest of the track sounded horrible, so we had to leave it. It sounded like 'douche' instead of 'deuce', 'cos of the technical process – a faulty azimuth due to tape-head angles, and it meant we couldn't remix it. I don't think Springsteen liked our Blinded by the Light, 'cos we sang 'wrapped up like a douche', and it wasn't written like that and I screwed it up completely.
The "deuce"/"douche" confusion stems from technical problems (which can be confirmed by comparing to live recordings). Īccording to Manfred Mann, it was the idea of drummer Chris Slade to use the chords of "Chopsticks" (the tune had at that point already been integrated into the arrangement) as a transition between song parts. As the line is frequently misheard as "wrapped up like a douche", Springsteen has joked about confusion over the lyrics, claiming that it was not until Manfred Mann rewrote the song to be about a feminine hygiene product that it became popular. Springsteen was fond of classic hot rods in his youth, hence the line "cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night". The most prominent change is in the chorus, where Springsteen's "cut loose like a deuce" is replaced with "revved up like a deuce." The lyric is a reference to the 1932 V8-powered Ford automobile, which enthusiasts dubbed the " deuce coupe". Manfred Mann's Earth Band's recording of the song changes the lyrics. 1 was as part of the USA for Africa ensemble that recorded " We Are the World". 1 single as a songwriter on the Hot 100 his highest charting single as a solo performer was " Dancing in the Dark" in 1984, which reached No. Manfred Mann's Earth Band's recording of "Blinded by the Light" is Springsteen's only No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Canadian RPM charts. Their version includes the " Chopsticks" melody played on piano near the end of the bridge of the song. Manfred Mann's Earth Band released a version of the song on their 1976 album The Roaring Silence. Manfred Mann's Earth Band version "Blinded by the Light" Springsteen's version was commercially unsuccessful and did not appear on the music charts. "Blinded by the Light" was the first single from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. The remainder of the song tells of many unrelated events, with the refrain of "Blinded by the light, cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night". "As the adolescent pumps his way into his hat" recalls his aunt Dora Kirby claiming "Bruce never took his baseball hat off." A "merry-go-round" is baseball slang for when a pitcher keeps walking batters. The first line of the song, "Madman drummers, bummers, and Indians in the summers with a teenage diplomat" is autobiographical-"Madman drummers" is a reference to drummer Vini Lopez, known as "Mad Man" (later changed to "Mad Dog") "Indians in the summer" refers to the name of Springsteen's old Little League team "teenage diplomat" refers to himself. Springsteen wrote this and " Spirit in the Night" in response.Īccording to Springsteen, he wrote the song by going through a rhyming dictionary in search of appropriate words. The song came about when Columbia Records president Clive Davis, upon listening to an early version of Greetings from Asbury Park N.J., felt the album lacked a potential single.