Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
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| "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Bruce Springsteen | ||||||||||
| from the album Born to Run | ||||||||||
| B-side | "She's the One" | |||||||||
| Released | 1976 | |||||||||
| Format | Compact disc | |||||||||
| Recorded | 1975 | |||||||||
| Genre | Rock R&B |
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| Length | 3:11 | |||||||||
| Label | CBS Records | |||||||||
| Producer | Bruce Springsteen, Mike Appel, Jon Landau | |||||||||
| Bruce Springsteen singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" is the second song on Bruce Springsteen's breakthrough album Born to Run.
[edit] Content
The song loosely tells the story of the formation of the E Street Band. However, when asked, most Springsteen fans cannot answer the question, "What is a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out?" The meaning of the phrase is still a mystery. Even Springsteen himself says, laughing, in the Born to Run documentary "Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run": "I still have no idea what it means. But it's important." Notwithstanding Springsteen's reluctance to elucidate the lyrics, the phrase could refer to Tenth Avenue in Manhattan, which is a truck route that runs down the west side of Manhattan and through Hell's Kitchen, which was known as a depressed, gritty area at the time the song was written. Immediately below that is the West Village, which was also known for its mean streets, decades before gentrification. Springsteen used to play in small clubs in the West Village before he became famous. It was not uncommon for Puerto Rican gangs like those immortalized in West Side Story and Irish gangs such as the Westies to intimidate people and rumble in the street. A "freeze out" could be a reference to a dicey situation -- maybe a late night encounter with street toughs -- that Springsteen imagined or experienced.
The song's protagonist, "Bad Scooter", is a pseudonym for Springsteen himself (as indicated by the initials they share). In the third verse, "Big Man joined the band" refers to the now deceased Clarence Clemons, the band's long-time saxophonist.
The song is upbeat, possibly the most so on the album, save for the album's title track, with a strong horn section (led by Clemons) and Roy Bittan's consistent piano chords keeping the rhythm. As stated by Springsteen in the Wings for Wheels documentary, the idea for the composition of the horn intro was Steven Van Zandt's. Despite all of this, the single was a chart dud, getting no higher than #83 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it has always had a strong following on album-oriented rock radio and amongst Springsteen's fan base.
An ice cream stand at 10th Avenue on the boardwalk of Belmar, New Jersey (the town from which the E Street Band took its name), is named 10th Avenue Freeze Out.
[edit] Live performance history
"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" has become a staple of Springsteen's E Street Band concert tours, with regular appearances from the 1975 and on Born to Run tours through the 1984 legs of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, with one of the latter documented on the later Live/1975–85, and the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express. It then returned with a featured regular spot on the 1999–2000 Reunion Tour, often used as an introduction of the band. It was captured on the subsequent Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live in New York City release, and was frequently played during most of the legs of the 2007–2008 Magic Tour and during the 2009 Working on a Dream Tour. It opened the four-song set at Springsteen and the band's high profile half-time appearance at Super Bowl XLIII, which included Springsteen pointing out that the verse about "the Big Man" joining the band was the important part of the song.
A slower version of this song was played during the Born to Run tours, on December 31st 1975 in Philadelphia.
[edit] External links
- Official lyrics
- What is a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out? Mystery solved? Extrageographic Magazine
- Springsteen, Bruce Philadelphia 12-31-1975, [1]
