Wreck on the Highway
The closing track of The River, a melancholic ballad with a false ending.
Bruce Springsteen, from The River (1980)
Springsteen wrote it and it closes side four of The River at 3:53 (3:54 on the song page). It was the last track recorded for the album, at The Power Station in New York in March and April 1980, produced by Landau, Springsteen and Van Zandt. A man witnesses a hit-and-run on a rainy, isolated highway and is haunted by it. It was inspired by Roy Acuff's song of the same name, itself derived from the Dixon Brothers' 1938 "I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray". In the UK it was the B-side of "Cadillac Ranch".
Patrick Humphries said it distills the essence of what makes Springsteen great, June Skinner Sawyers called it a perfect song, a masterpiece in miniature, and Clinton Heylin a semi-ironic farewell to albums about cars and girls. Wikipedia counts about a hundred performances through 2008, mostly on the 1980 to 1981 River Tour; it returned on electric piano on the 2005 Devils and Dust tour and was played every night of the 2016 River Tour. A recording from Tower Theater in Upper Darby on May 17, 2005 was released officially in 2021. We found no covers.
On stage
- 2005-05-17, Tower Theater, Upper Darby Released officially in 2021.
More songs by Bruce Springsteen
Born to Run, Nebraska, Born in the U.S.A., Thunder Road, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Jungleland, State Trooper, My Hometown, Stolen Car, Racing in the Street, Open All Night, The River
Sources
- Wreck on the Highway (Bruce Springsteen song), Wikipedia
- The River (Bruce Springsteen album), Wikipedia