Song title: The ballad of the architect angel
The ballad of the architect angel - Studio version
The architect angel held the straight Juda ranch
Just a dirty mile down on the borderline
Where he mastered blastin' and hustled young cattle for slaughter
And dated Juda's daughter
From the cellar ways to the attics and all across the plains
Broke electric static of religious strain
And though he was never an addict, he wore scars on his veins
Like a young girl holds her first pimp, he held his Bible limp
From desert bars and church bazaars, the hungry slowly came
With vulgar faces from vulgar places lookin' for a game
Well ivory gun handles and chamber grease
And souped up hydroplanes
The bullets burn from TV silver, bearin' great cowboys names
Now with 14 inches of gun barrel smokin' from the lid
Spurs on straight black bootheels, he said "they call me the Brooklyn Kid"
And in his lonely zenith nightmares, well that's just what they did
Oh, how he played out his scenes, loaded on bends of dreams
Well, his holster slung low like a hot kid sister
Tied back to his leg like he gonna do
He was stompin' the step he called the Brooklyn Twister
His six-guns were pumpin' through
His tongue hung low like sawdust scrapin' across the plains
He crawled up outside the Juda ranch
And started callin' the angel names
And now the architect angel stood, in one hand a staff, the other a gun
He held the staff high in the wind, the gun was like a piece in the sun
He started howlin' like a monsoon wind, drew fast, the job was done
At night the moon stretched tight light across the plains
As real cowboys sat around real campfire flames
And the county wolf called as if to explain to his son
The way the west was won
The west was finally won
The way the west was won Notes:
1973 sessions. Also played live in that period
The ballad of the architect angel - Live version
Well the architect angel held the straight Juda ranch
Just a dirty mile down on the borderline
Where he mastered blastin' and hustled young cattle for slaughter
And dated Juda's daughter
From the cellar ways to the attics and all across the plains
Broke electric static, ohh of a religious strain
And though he was not an addict, he wore scars upon his veins
Like a young girl holds her first pimp, he held his Bible limp
From desert bars and church bazaars, the hungry slowly came
With vulgar faces from vulgar places lookin' for a game
With ivory gun handles and chamber grease
And souped-up hydroplanes
With bullets burned from TV silver, bearin' great cowboys' names
14 inches of gun barrel, and he was smokin' from the lid,
Spurs on straight black bootheels, he said "Uptown, they call me the Brooklyn Kid"
And in their lonely Zenith nightmares, well that's just what they did
Well, with a holster slung low like a hot kid-sister
Tied tight to his leg like he was gonna do
He was stompin' a step he called the Brooklyn Twister.
With six-guns pumpin' he was comin' through
And his tongue hung low like sawdust scrapin' across the plains
He crawled up outside the Juda Ranch
And started callin' the angel names
And now the architect angel stood, in one hand a staff, and in the other a gun
He held the staff high in the wind, the gun was like a piece in the sun
He started howlin' like a monsoon wind, drew fast, and the job was done
That night the moon stretched tight light down on the plains
As real cowboys sat around real campfire flames
And the county wolf called as if to explain to his son
The way the West was won
The way the West was won Notes:
A track dating from 1973. These lyrics refer to the live version performed on 31 January 1973 at Max's Kansas City, New York. A studio version also exists.
This song has never been published on any official release.
Very few performances of this songs are known (to me, at least!):
- 31/01/1973 Max's Kansas City, New York,NY ,USA during the Greetings Tour
Data from the www.brucespringsteen.it database
Unique known live performance: 31/01/1973 Max's Kansas City, New York,NY ,USA
Song 'history':
Played live 1 time(s) during the so-called 'Greetings 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 for the Laurel Canyon / London Publishing demos, then recorded again during the Greetings / Wild sessions in 1972-73
Data from the www.brucespringsteen.it database