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It’s one of those songs that sometimes runs through your head, or when you hear it you know it but you’re just not sure of the lyrics.
I always thought it said: “rapped up like a noose, you know a runner in the night.” Never knew what the words meant…

Well here are the lyrics to “Blinded By The Light” which are significantly different than my original take:

Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Madman drummers bummers,
Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin’ kinda older,
I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasin’, sneezin’ and wheezin,
the calliope crashed to the ground
The calliope crashed to the ground
But she was…
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Some silicone sister with a manager mister told me I go what it takes
She said “I’ll turn you on sonny to something strong,
play the song with the funky break”
And go-cart Mozart was checkin’ out the weather chart to see if it was safe outside
And little Early-Pearly came by in his curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride
Asked me if I needed a ride
But she was…
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
She got down but she never got tired
She’s gonna make it through the night
She’s gonna make it through the night
But mama, that’s where the fun is
But mama, that’s where the fun is
Mama always told me not to look into the eye’s of the sun
But mama, that’s where the fun is
Some brimstone baritone anticyclone rolling stone preacher from the east
Says, “Dethrone the dictaphone, hit it in it’s funny bone,
that’s where they expect it least”
And some new-mown chaperone was standin’ in the corner,
watching the young girls dance
And some fresh-sown moonstone was messin’ with his frozen zone, reminding him of romance
The calliope crashed to the ground
But she was…
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
Madman drummers bummers, Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin’ kinda older,
I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasin’, sneezin’ and wheezin,
the calliope crashed to the ground
Now Scott with a slingshot finially found a tender spot and throws his lover in the sand
And some bloodshot forget-me-not said daddy’s within earshot save the buckshot, turn up the band
Some silicone sister with a manager mister told me I go what it takes
She said “I’ll turn you on sonny to something strong”

Man, that’s some writin’. Way to go Springsteen (the song was crafted by Bruce Springsteen, in the early 70s I guess.) When did Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues single come out? Also kudos to the Manfred Mann band, there’s some really fine musicality going on there…

I remember an event in about ’73, at The Tropicana Motor Hotel on Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood. I was crashing on the floor of Chuck E Weiss’ motel room. Tom Waits was living down-stairs, Bob Dylan was staying there, he had his kids and was driving a station wagon, and Baha Marimba Band members were staying just a few doors down. It was close to the night that Sal Mineo was murdered. I was sitting on Weiss’ bed when the story played on his lousy TV. The really creepy thing was that the crime had just happened a few blocks away from the Tropicana. This link is where I got “Trivia: John Lennon once put up a reward to find Mineo’s killer.”

Sal Mineo was a East Coast-ish, Italian-ish actor who played a troubled-teen from a troubled family with complicated relationships with both co-actors: James Dean and Natalie Wood in one of the most influential movies of the rock and roll age, Rebel Without A Cause. Mineo won an Academy Award for “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” for his role as John ‘Plato’ Crawford. Sal Mineo was in fact, Brooklyn-born Italian but was picking up a California patina.

Anyway, I recall Weiss holding up one of Springsteen’s first albums, it was the first I had heard of Bruce Springsteen. Chuck E Weiss is always on the sharpest point of the cutting edge. In the middle of all this, a couple of nights later Mineo gets slaughtered! Too much…

“Blinded by the Light” was the first song on, and first single from Bruce Springsteen’s 1973 debut album Greetings from Asbury Park N.J. the [sic]band’s version was initially unsuccessful, and failed to appear on the music charts, according to WIKI.

Probably best known for the perennial “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” (Is that where Puff Daddy – Diddy got his name? Don’t care!) Manfred Mann was a 60s doper band. “Blinded By The Light” is probably a better, stronger song, I just didn’t realize that it was Manfred Mann. Good song dudes!!!

Here’s the best synopsis of The Tropicana I’ve ever seen. Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, strikeout artist of the Los Angeles Dodgers was the Tropicana’s owner at the time.