The song Patti Smith called “a whole life in one song”
It’s not often that collaborating on a song can run smoothly, especially when one artist has a truly vested interest in what’s being written. However, with ‘Because the Night’, Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen managed to pull it off.
The classic song that people have been singing at the top of their lungs for decades now was originally left a half-written chorus taking up space on Bruce Springsteen’s desk. He had the catchy hook ready to go, but just couldn’t work out what else to do with it. Before waving his white flag and abandoning the song, he decided to reach out to Patti Smith to see if she had any ideas.
So, why was it that Springsteen was struggling so much with the track? The simple answer was that he wasn’t privy to love songs, and it was clear that ‘Because the Night’ was going to be one. As he sat down to write the verses, he couldn’t get over the writer’s block occupying his senses.
“It was a love song and I really wasn’t writing them at the time. I wrote these very hidden love songs like ‘For You’, or ‘Sandy’, maybe even ‘Thunder Road’, but they were always coming from a different angle,” said Springsteen, “My love songs were never straight out, they weren’t direct. That song needed directness, and at the time, I was uncomfortable with it. I was hunkered down in my Samurai position.”
When you hear this collaboration, it becomes very apparent that ‘The Boss’ worked on the chorus, and Patti Smith put together the verse that brings the soulful kick to the track. As the chorus booms in rock and roll sway, Smith deftly articulates the complexities of love with tenderness in her verses. Moreover, the timing of the song was perfect, as she had only recently met Fred Smith and was falling for him.
She channelled her blossoming feelings into the song and was able to use them to effectively complement Springsteen’s chorus. They were poetic, as Smith has always been renowned for her poetry, but they were also heartfelt and wonderfully in line with the rest of the song, something she’s remarkably smart with as well. Given Fred Smith became such a huge part of her life, she looks back at this song fondly, and feels him in the lyrics whenever she sings it back.
While the music can help the listener make sense of a situation, it can do the same to the writer. When Patti Smith revisits ‘Because the Night’, she is reminded of the raw nature of her love and how exciting the whole thing was.
“[‘Because the Night’] has followed me,” she said, adding, “When I look at my personal life, I can’t sing the song without seeing the ‘70s on. I see it’s a whole life in a song. I met Fred in ‘76. A lot of my memories in life and my hopes and dreams are tied up in that meeting, and are sort of embedded in the song. The song for me spans decades. It’s not a song I used to do; it’s a song that seems alive every time we do it.”
