Headfirst Into A Hurricane - 10th Anniversary Analysis of Springsteen's "Lost in the Flood"

10 years ago today, one of my absolute favorite albums was released - Hammersmith Odeon London '75, a concert recorded by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band back in 1975. As far as live albums go, it's a real zinger. It was The Boss's first European tour, and it shows. There's a fiery intensity to each track, a crackling energy, like the band had something to prove. And they did. Preceding the event, Columbia Records reportedly flooded London with flyers, boldly proclaiming, "Finally London is ready for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band!" Pretty wild. Thankfully, they lived up to the hype. This is simply one of the greats, right up there with Sinatra at the Sands or The Beatles' rooftop concert. It's an engaging, passionate album.

One of the best...!

And although I love this record (it's easily my all-time favorite from Springsteen), there's one song I'm particularly enamored with. "Lost in the Flood," originally released on 73's Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., is truly a soulful tune. It's the track that catapulted my lukewarm fondness for Springsteen to a full-on infatuation. The first time I heard it, I was walking home from school, volume blaring to drown out the traffic. I was immediately entranced. Springsteen's lyrics evoke undeniably strong emotions, drawing on topics like the Vietnam War, street violence, and spiritual disillusionment. Through breathtaking imagery, vivid characterization, strong symbolism, and ironic wordplay, he illustrates humanity's vulnerability to fate. If you're willing to read along, I'd like to explain it to you. This is "Lost in the Flood" how I see it, ten years after first listening. I hope you read and enjoy.

Okay, okay - to start, the song is split into three verses, each with its own story. The first focuses on a "ragamuffin gunner," presumably a returned soldier from Vietnam. It's a story about the character's skepticism of the church, and also a disturbing description of his time spent in war. The second verse is about "a pure American brother" who the song only refers to as "Jimmy the Saint." It's the romantic vision of a street racer's final drag. The third story describes gang warfare in the streets of New York City, showing both the futility and eerie glorification of violence. Each verse ends in the death of a character, illustrating humanity's defenselessness to fate.

As always, the imagery Springsteen employs is stunning, particularly in the second verse. Jimmy is a "blaze-and-noise boy" who dies a "highwayman's farewell" behind the wheel. His driving boils down to, "Gunnin' that bitch." Man, I love that. But the lyrics in the first verse are a tad more convoluted. Describing the ragamuffin gunner's past, comes the line, "His countryside's burnin' with wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide." Bizarre, right? Here's what I think: The wolfman is a traditional manifestation of the Jungian "Trickster" archetype, confusing and frightening. They appear as haunting fairies, wearing "drag for homicide," i.e. the army's olive drab, reminiscent of his horrific time in Vietnam. I think Gunner suffers post-traumatic stress, and in the song is suffering from a flashback, resulting in his death. Pretty neat, right? I also like the line, "The hit-and-run plead sanctuary, 'neath a holy stone they hide." This hints at Gunner's guilt. His Vietnam atrocities feel like a hit-and-run car accident, in which he never stopped to see the damage he caused. As for that holy stone...?

Bring on the religious disillusionment! There's a lot here, all serving the idea that fate, and not God, defines our destinies. While I don't know if I agree, I'm infatuated with the sentiment. By that logic, fate becomes the most powerful force in existence. Wild stuff. As far as irony goes, the religious rhetoric provides a nice juxtaposition between reality and fantasy - what is versus what should be. Example: Jimmy the Saint, our romantic small-town hero (think James Dean, Steve McQueen) is hardly a divine saint - just another person lost in the flood, surrendered to fate. How about "Bronx's best apostle" from the third verse? Just a kid with a gun. The "storefront incarnation of Maria" is possibly this song's Mary Magdalene, a hooker on 8th Avenue. Maybe she's an actual Mother Mary statue, a cheap trinket in a store window, dusty and irrelevant. My favorite? The nuns running through "Vatican halls pregnant, pleadin' immaculate conception." Last? "And everybody's wrecked on Main Street from drinking unholy blood." All this religious iconography is meaningless in the face of Springsteen's flood. Fate. The most powerful thing in the universe.

Which is, of course, our end point. The flood. Throughout the piece, the speaker wonders at the end of each verse why certain events transpired, but gives up every time and blames it on the flood, on fate. The first stanza: "Have you thrown your senses to the war, or did you lose them in the flood?" The second: "I wonder what he was thinking when he hit that storm, or was he just lost in the flood?" The third: "I wonder what they were gettin' into, or were they just lost in the flood?" Fate conquers all. The gospel according to Springsteen.

Lastly, there's the music. It's awesome, especially in this recording. The arrangement adds more to the theme, strengthening the message. The melody is a haunting one, complete with moaning guitar and a single organ note lasting the entire song. This adds despair, making fate seem even more powerful and everything else weaker in its way. The centerpiece is a beautiful piano, with the beginning and end reminiscent of a funeral hymn, solemn and melancholic. During the second verse (the tale of Jimmy the Saint), the rest of the band crashes in, mimicking the flood's crash over humanity. Even the line, "Everything stops, you hear five quick shots..." is immediately followed by a rapid fire of snare drum hits - the echo of gun shots in that tragic alley. The conclusion is ghastly - the chord structure devolves into chaotic clamor, with Springsteen wailing hopelessly, the metaphor reaching a hectic climax.

Because of the strong theme and incredibly inventive avenues explored to support it, "Lost in the Flood" by Springsteen is a masterwork. From war to warmth, from cars to crashes, from fate to fatality...this tune, and this particular live album, has it all. Getting lost in this song's subtleties and complexities is just as easy as getting lost in the flood itself.