Return of Racing in the Street leaves Alan Pattullo with mixed emotions

It was the biggest news from Gothenburg’s Ullevi stadium since John Hewitt headed in an unlikely winner for Aberdeen against Real Madrid in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup final 40 years ago.

The latest Bruce Springsteen set-list was in. And – ye gods! – the Swedes had been blessed. After over 40 dates of an ongoing world tour, including Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh, a gig I’d spent a small fortune to be at, his greatest song, Racing in the Street, was back in the setlist (other songs are available, other opinions are valid, all wrong of course).

Indeed, last week Gothenburg was treated to the track’s first live rendition since 2017. I greeted this bulletin of information with a curious mix of envy, annoyance and relief.

Bruce Springsteen playing a festival in Werchter in Belgium last month on his current tour with the E Street Band (Photo by JAMES ARTHUR GEKIERE / Belga / AFP) / Belgium OUT (Photo by JAMES ARTHUR GEKIERE/Belga/AFP via Getty Images)

Envy and annoyance because it’s bloody typical that this would happen a few dates after the Boss had entertained Edinburgh with a three-hour set containing 29 songs, not one of which was Racing in the Street.

And relief because, well, it’s nice to know a song I’ve listened to for over 30 years can still do funny things to someone’s skin. Goose pimples stood to attention as I carefully navigated my way through every shaky bit of camera phone footage I could find on Twitter from night one, and indeed two, in Gothenburg.

I am glad to report the near-ten minute 2023 rendition of the song is reassuringly epic. The opening lines of “I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a three-ninety-six/Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor” are still impossibly poetic even though I have no idea what any of those things are – maybe because of that, indeed. There certainly wasn’t a lot of street racing going on in the farming badlands of Angus where I grew up.

A music magazine recently composed a top 50 Springsteen songs feature and I slightly wearily started reading down from 50 expecting to see the usual suspects in the top spots like the dreary Born in the USA or ghastly Dancing in the Dark.

But no, it seems my favourite song is the same as a lot of people’s. He’ll no doubt play it in London’s Hyde Park tomorrow night. I’ve just checked, tickets are over £250 each on resale sites. I might have to give it a miss, though one consolation is that I saw him play a definitive version of the song there in 2009. It’s on YouTube. Do yourself a favour.

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Passions: Return of Racing in the Street leaves Alan Pattullo with mixed emotions

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