‘Spare Parts’: the Bruce Springsteen song written about female independence
The skillfull songwriting approach of Bruce Springsteen has the uncanny knack of being able to position the listener into the mind of the song’s protagonist. Using his craft to spread a specific message, throughout his career, Springsteen has tackled a whole breadth of essential subjects from a range different angles. Take ‘Spare Parts’ for example, a song in which he tells an empowering tale of female independence.
As part of his autobiography, Born To Run, Springsteen fascinatingly explores his relationship with masculinity and explains why he believes misogyny continues to cause societal anguish. He wrote: “A misogyny grown from the fear of all the dangerous, beautiful, strong women in our lives crossed with the carrying of an underlying physical threat, a psychological bullying that is meant to frighten and communicate that the dark thing in you is barely restrained, you use it to intimidate those you love”.
Springsteen has never been afraid to of approach uncomfortable subjects head on, whether this is through his songwriting techniques or the subsequent interview questions they inspire. While ‘The Boss’ can’t directly relate to the position of a struggling single mother like the protagonist in ‘Spare Parts’, he can emphasise.
The Bruce Springsteen: Video Anthology 1978-1988 included a live version of ‘Spare Parts’ taken from a concert in Sheffield. In the lengthy introduction to the song, Springsteen explains to the Yorkshire crowd: “This is a song about a woman struggling to understand the value of her own independent existence… trying to find something new, and beautiful and meaningful in her life today.”
In the opening verse, Springsteen graphically explains how the lead character in ‘Spare Parts’ waved goodbye to young adulthood after accidentally falling pregnant. He sings: “Bobby said he’d pull out, Bobby stayed in, Janey had a baby, it wasn’t any sin, They were set to marry on a summer day, Bobby got scared and he ran away, Jane moved in with her ma out on Shawnee Lake, She sighed, ‘Ma sometimes my whole life feels like one big mistake’, She settled in in a back room, time passed on, Later that winter, a son come along”.
Later in the song, at a time when the protagonist is struggling, she overhears the story of a local woman toiling with motherhood that harrowingly carried out an act of infanticide. Springsteen sings: “Mist was on the water, low run the tide, Janey held her son down at the riverside, Waist deep in the water, how bright the sun shone, She lifted him in her arms and carried him home, As he lay sleeping in her bed, Janey took a look around at everything, Went to a drawer in her bureau and got out her old engagement ring, Took out her wedding dress, tied that ring up in its sash, Went straight down to the pawn shop man and walked out with some good cold cash”.
Thankfully, as the lyrics depict, Springsteen’s lead character only contemplated carrying out the horrific act before seeing the error in her ways and realising she had the strength to raise the child without the assistance of a man.
