You Choose The Chance You Take
Springsteen’s characters are most often poised in a battle to the death against inevitability.
The inevitable can change based on the story being told, or the themes being explored — sometimes it’s inevitable that you’ll drink too much Tanqueray and wine, get a gun, and shoot a night clerk. Other times, it’s inevitable that your girlfriend’s yapping mother will drive you crazy while you’re stuck in traffic. It’s the economy, it’s your no-good brother Frankie, it’s the death of your hometown — forces large and small exerting inescapable pressure downward onto the throats of his protagonists.
To me, that’s at the heart of “The Price You Pay,” which is maybe as close to a mission statement as Springsteen has ever come. It’s a song he rarely plays live — since the River tour, it’s seen just two outings, one of which was as part of playing the entire River album live and in sequence.
You make up your mind; you choose the chance you take…but the promised land remains just out of reach. You’re going to build the road you’ll ride to your death. Crushing forces, inexorable fate, the hand of God almighty…
…but then you hit the end, and there’s a pivot toward defiance. The same torrent of rage that doused Darkness on the Edge of Town — “Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart,” “I wanna go out tonight, I wanna find out what I got” — ignites again in the face of the inevitable.
But just across the county line, a stranger passing through put up a sign
That counts the men fallen away to the price you pay
And girl before the end of the day,
I’m gonna tear it down and throw it away
Springsteen’s narrators fight their way from wherever they are to wherever they want to be, although in his songs, we don’t always see them get there. We see the journey and the struggle, not the destination. Even in contented marriage and fatherhood, he’s still asking questions and writing about the fight.
Because if his music’s about any one thing, it’s that. I think he acutely feels those forces pushing down; I think he understands what keeps us apart and alone; I think he believes it’s never too late to choose another chance, to spit in the face of these badlands, to tear it down and throw it away.
