Why is it great? This is the first lyric to feature on "One Great Sentence," and of course it had to be Springsteen. I chose this not because it's my favorite lyric by him, but because this song is Springsteen at his storytelling best. It's a screenplay in a five-minute song, a Rust Belt Cain and Abel story with a narrative arc to make longform writers jealous. Love, loyalty, loss, laughter -- it's all there. I always picture the scene from "The Deer Hunter" with DeNiro and Walken at the pool hall when Springsteen sings "Me and Frankie laughing and drinking/Nothing feels better than blood on blood/Taking turns dancing with Maria/As the band played 'Night of the Johnstown Flood.'" (Oh, and if this whets your appetite, Springsteen gets the Storyboard treatment here.)
“Well I chased him through them county roads / Till a sign said Canadian border five miles from here / I pulled over to the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear.”
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One Great Moment
“Besides, there’s more room …”
From a tribute by Mary Lou Logsdon, a spiritual advisor and writer in St. Paul, Minnesota, upon the death of a friend
One Great Moment
“Go out, little book, into the world.”
From an interview with author Margaret Atwood
