Bruce Springsteen lyrics -- Bruce Springsteen shows -- Bruce Springsteen records

Song title: Lost in the flood


Lost in the flood

The ragamuffin gunner is returnin’ home like a hungry runaway
He walks through town all alone
He must be from the fort he hears the high school girls say
His countryside’s burnin’ with wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide
They hit and run, plead sanctuary, `neath a holy stone they hide
They’re breakin’ beams and crosses with a spastic’s reelin’ perfection
Nuns run bald through Vatican halls pregnant, pleadin’ immaculate conception
And everybody’s wrecked on Main Street from drinking unholy blood
Sticker smiles sweet as gunner breathes deep, his ankles caked in mud
And I said “Hey gunner man that’s quicksand, that’s quicksand that ain’t mud
Have you thrown your senses to the war or did you lose them in the flood?”

That pure American brother, dull-eyed and empty-faced
Races Sundays in Jersey in a Chevy stock super eight
He rides `er low on the hip, on the side he’s got Bound For Glory
in red, white and blue flash paint
He leans on the hood telling racing stories,
the kids call him Jimmy The Saint
Well the blaze and noise boy,
he’s gunnin’ that bitch loaded to blastin’ point
He rides head first into a hurricane and disappears into a point
And there’s nothin’ left but some blood where the body fell
That is, nothin’ left that you could sell
Just junk all across the horizon, a real highwayman’s farewell
And he said “Hey kid, you think that’s oil? Man, that ain’t oil that’s blood”
I wonder what he was thinking when he hit that storm
Or was he just lost in the flood?

Eighth Avenue sailors in satin shirts whisper in the air
Some storefront incarnation of Maria, she’s puttin’ on me the stare
And Bronx’s best apostle stands with his hand on his own hardware
Everything stops, you hear five, quick shots, the cops come up for air
And now the whiz-bang gang from uptown, they’re shootin’ up the street
And that cat from the Bronx starts lettin’ loose
but he gets blown right off his feet
And some kid comes blastin’ round the corner but a cop puts him right away
He lays on the street holding his leg screaming something in Spanish
Still breathing when I walked away
And somebody said “Hey man did you see that?
His body hit the street with such a beautiful thud”
I wonder what the dude was sayin’ or was he just lost in the flood?
Hey man, did you see that, those poor cats are sure messed up
I wonder what they were gettin’ into, or were they just lost in the flood?

Notes: Played two dozen times until 27-Dec-1975. Two solo piano appearances in the Darkness tour and then the song was really "lost in the flood". But the last night of the Reunion tour it stroke back in all its beauty, after 22 years!

Statistics from the KILLING FLOOR (www.brucespringsteen.it) database

Published on the following official releases:

First known live performance: 14/02/1973 Vcu Gym, Richmond,VA ,USA
Last known live performance: 22/01/2017 Perth Arena, Perth ,Australia

Song 'history':

Played live 3 time(s) during the so-called 'Greetings Tour' and 7 time(s) during the gigs preceeding the official Born To Run Tour.
Keep in mind that only a small amount of the setlists of these years has surfaced, so it may have been played a lot more.
Apart from the above live performances, the song was recorded during the Greetings / Wild sessions in 1972-73 (and released on GREETINGS....)
Bruce inserted it 13 times in the setlists of the Born to Run tour
It only saw the light 3 times in the whole Darkness tour
Bruce gave this song one only shot through the Reunion tour (01/07/2000 Madison Square Garden, New York,NY ,USA)
The last NY show(s) of the Reunion Tour were released in both CD and DVD (more songs) 'LIVE IN NYC', which included also this song
During the Rising tour, the song was played 3 times
Played during the Vote For Change tour, in October 2004.
Played during the rehearsals for the Devils and dust Tour, in Mar/Apr 2005.
14 perfomances were given during the Devils and Dust tour
It only saw the light 4 times in the whole Magic tour
Two only performances during the Working on a Dream tour (05/06/2009 Stadium, Stockholm ,Sweden and 22/11/2009 HSBC Arena, Buffalo,NY ,USA)
Just less than a dozen shots during the Wrecking Ball tour
Not much used during the High Hopes tour, deserving only 3 renderings
It only saw the light less than a dozen times in the whole 2016 The River tour
Performed 1 times during the 2017 Summer tour

The song was also played in informal happenings or off-tour appearances
Data from the www.brucespringsteen.it database