The one song Bruce Springsteen will never reveal the secret to: “I’ll never tell”
Songwriting is a fairly miraculous art form. You could read all the books, study all the greatest artists, and dedicate yourself endlessly to writing a decent song, but the simple fact seems to be that some folks are naturally better suited to writing songs than others. Bruce Springsteen is certainly one of those people, having penned a seemingly endless range of iconic songs over the course of his long and illustrious career. Many of those compositions remain a mystery to the lamen, but The Boss isn’t about to reveal the secrets of his songwriting.
Springsteen has explored countless different themes throughout his songwriting journey, finding success with tales of working-class reality before expanding his repertoire into something much more expansive. Along the way, the New Jersey songwriter has often been the victim of misinterpretation. Famously, his smash-hit single ‘Born In the USA’ was wrongly heralded as a patriotic anthem celebrating the United States rather than the critical anti-war anthem its lyrics reveal it to be.
That 1984 single is far from being the only Springsteen track to raise questions. Although the songwriter has repeatedly attempted to set the record straight about the chronically misunderstood ‘Born In the USA’, he has been keen to keep other tracks awash with mystery. One such song is ‘Candy’s Room’, from his seminal 1978 record Darkness on the Edge of Town.
In essence, the song is a love song dedicated to a woman by the name of Candy. In opposition to Springsteen’s other romantic efforts – the likes of ‘4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)’, ‘Born To Run’, or ‘Sherry Darling’ – ‘Candy’s Room’ has a much darker undercurrent to its narrative. As the track progresses, the narrator becomes delusional, harbouring an unhealthy obsession for Candy that is clearly unreciprocated.
Examining the lyrics of ‘Candy’s Room’, it is very easy to understand why so many Springsteen fans have theorised the song to be about a prostitute by the name Candy. “Strangers from the city call my baby’s number and they bring her toys,” sings Springsteen, in a lyric that is particularly unambiguous about Candy’s potential line of work.
Reportedly, the song came about after Springsteen welded together two incomplete compositions, ‘Candy’s Boy’ and ‘The Fast Song’. Musically, the song bears some resemblance to the style of punk rock which was emerging during the mid-1970s, so perhaps The Boss chose a suitably shocking subject matter in an effort to fit in with the seansationalism of the punk rock age.
Songs about prostitutes were hardly revolutionary by 1978; everybody from Pete Seeger to The Beatles had sung about the world’s oldest profession. What’s more, Springsteen’s willingness to take on topics of social realism and storytelling certainly seems to fall in line with the idea that ‘Candy’s Room’ is the tale of a prostitute and a punter who becomes obsessive. Nevertheless, the songwriter has routinely downplayed the allegations.
“Does it really matter? I’ll never tell,” he told Rolling Stone in 2010 upon being asked about the song’s connection to sex work. Perhaps it is better to have that sense of ambiguity and questioning within the song’s history. After all, no self-respecting magician should ever reveal his tricks.
