On Saturday, the New Jersey Devils got their second win – but more importantly their first win on an MSG broadcast. That meant we at home got to hear one of the victory songs, and it’s still “Glory Days.” How? This is a bad choice and needs to stop
It’s fully understandable why a New Jersey team would pick a Bruce Springsteen song. It’s also the correct choice for artist – many of us fans are die-hard Boss fans, and we love hearing his music. The downside, however, is that us die-hard Boss fans know that the Devils picked maybe the second or third worst song on the album to play during a celebration.
Much of the Born In The U.S.A. album is misunderstood by people who don’t listen to the lyrics. “Working On The Highway” songs cheery but it’s about a highway worker who kidnaps a girl and gets put on a chain gang to work on the highway again. The eponymous “Born In The U.S.A.” is famously misinterpreted. George Will and Ronald Reagan’s publicly failed attempts to use it during the 1984 election should have stopped people from using it entirely, but it is still out there. A recent egregious and indefensible example is the song playing over the US National Women’s Hockey Team celebrating their gold medal win at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Seoul.
Even by that standard, though, “Glory Days” is misunderstood. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that it’s the most misunderstood track on the entire album, if not the Boss’s entire discography.
Why? Because it’s played at ballparks, arena, and other stadiums across the country – including our precious Prudential Center – even though it’s a song overtly about washed up losers.
Glory Days is a song about people whose best days are behind them.
Glory Days is Peaked In High School: The Song
Glory Days should not be played to celebrate athletes in their prime, and people should not still getting tricked by the major key and organ.
The first verse – based on a real chance meeting Springsteen had with a former Little League teammate – tells the story of the narrator running into a guy he played with in high school baseball.The second verse is about a woman the narrator knew in school. She was beautiful back then, but now she’s a single mother to her kids after her husband Bobby left her. The third verse is the narrator having a drink trying to recapture his better years.
If this isn’t blatant enough, there was originally an extra verse about the narrator’s father getting fired from his assembly line job, being told he’s too old to hire anywhere else, and sitting at a Legion hall drowning his sorrows about it. Why are we playing this to celebrate young adults in the prime of their careers winning a game? It’s ludicrous.
An Alternative
If the Devils decide to take my advice but need an alternative, we don’t even need to leave the Born In The U.S.A. album – just use No Surrender.
The chorus is easy enough to play on organ, but more importantly, the song makes thematic sense – the narrator is reminding his friend that they promised they’d be great one day and it’s time to give it a go. “No retreat, baby, no surrender” works in any context after a win – blowout, come from behind, winning the division, chasing a wildcard spot, or just doing their best.
Let’s do it, New Jersey Devils. We Are The Ones who pick happy music for happy times.
On A Related Note
While we’re here, the use of One by Metallica is troubling as well. It’s a song about a quadruple amputee solider literally begging for death. It’s not even subtle. The music video includes clips from Johnny Got His Gun. If they must keep the “One” theme going, there is another song with that same title, one that’s a celebration rather than misery. Fellow members of the overlap in the Hockey Fan/Theater Kid Venn diagram, it’s your time to shine.
That’s right. A Chorus Line. Marvin Hamlisch. Play it over the PA system, you cowards.