Thirty-five years on, Bruce Springsteen’s Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out decoded. And dissected. And mulled-over. And…
Pictured: Bruce Springsteen Introducing Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out at the Super Bowl
He’s 59 and jumping off a piano – in front of an estimated TV audience of one billion. It’s thought to be the most-watched Super Bowl in history. Fireworks exploding into the night sky. Bruce Springsteen is now at the microphone. The opening bars of Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out are pumped out all over the globe.
Tenth Avenue what?
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out was the first song played by Bruce Springsteen at his Super Bowl 2009 half-time performance. Bruce’s “twelve minute party” playlist also featured the songs “Born to Run”, “Working on a Dream” and “Glory Days”. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out was also the second song on Springsteen’s 1975 break-through album Born To Run.
A Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out?
But what exactly is a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out? Why would Springsteen open one of the biggest gigs of his career with it? And why should you care?
I’m not a Bruce Springsteen fan, but I caught his Superbowl performance on YouTube and was impressed by the spectacle and the performance. It was an entertaining mass media event. Yet Bruce is a global star on stage in front of a billion people, and he’s chosen to sing about a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out. Springsteen has packaged himself for global consumption.
But look at his lyrics, and they’re not as simplistic as the image of the singer that was once projected by the press. President Reagan may have attempted to co-opt the anthemic chorus of “Born in the U.S.A” for his 1984 presidential campaign, but a closer reading reveals that the song is a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans.
What I’m trying to say is: if you’re not a Springsteen fan, don’t immediately dismiss him. I’m curious enough to see if this song will bear being poked at. Or, in other words, I’m lost in music, caught in a trap.
Bruce Springsteen’s not telling
What does Bruce Springsteen say a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out is? He says he doesn’t know. Musicians often say this, they don’t want to spoil their listeners interpretations.
But recently, in his Super Bowl blog, Springsteen wrote: “During “Tenth Avenue” I tell the story of my band… and other things “when the change was made uptown”…”. Online, fans tend to agree with “The Boss”. They say it’s a song about how Springsteen formed his E Street Band in the mid 70s. But they say they don’t know what a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out is.
Tenth Avenue? E Street meets 10th Avenue in Belmar, New Jersey. Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey.
So now we know where the Tenth Avenue in the song title is from – and it points towards the song being about Springsteen’s formative musical years.
Pictured: E Street meets 10th Avenue, Belmar
Dictionary definitions
But what’s a Freeze Out? Quick, to the dictionary.
Collins: Freeze Out, verb; “To prevent (someone) from being involved in an activity, conversation, etc., by being unfriendly or reserved.”
And in poker, a Freeze-Out is a “A table-stakes cash game or tournament that continues until a small number of players (usually only one) has all the money.”
And to me, a Freeze-Out sounds like hip musician-speak. Simple as that.
And Wikipedia says: “Cool has been used to describe a general state of well-being, a transcendent, internal peace and serenity.”
So we have three definitions. So far a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out is:
a) Being unfriendly to someone in New Jersey.
b) A type of poker game in New Jersey and
c) New Jersey serenity.
Examine the lyrics
Now let’s cross reference the definitions against the song’s lyrics. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out has three verses;
First verse.
Tear drops on the city
Bad Scooter searching for his groove
Seem like the whole world walking pretty
And you can’t find the room to move
Well everybody better move over, that’s all
I’m running on the bad side
And I got my back to the wall
Tenth Avenue freeze-out, Tenth Avenue freeze-out
Pictured: Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out single record sleeve
Bad Scooter is Bruce Springsteen. The first verse is establishing tension – desire for something better. The dictionary definition of Freeze-Out springs to mind: “To prevent (someone) from being involved in an activity”. In other words, Bruce’s surroundings are stopping him taking his music to the public / being the musician he wants to be.
Second verse.
I’m stranded in the jungle
Taking all the heat they was giving
The night is dark but the sidewalk’s bright
And lined with the light of the living
From a tenement window a transistor blasts
Turn around the corner things got real quiet real fast
She hit me with a Tenth Avenue freeze-out
Tenth Avenue freeze-out
And I’m all alone, I’m all alone
And kid you better get the picture
And I’m on my own, I’m on my own
And I can’t go home
Bruce states his desire to be something better. But moves the tension up a notch. Now it’s not just his surroundings that are preventing him from bettering himself, there’s also a woman preventing him from activity. But he’s started out on his journey and can’t return.
Third verse.
When the change was made uptown
And the Big Man joined the band
From the coastline to the city
All the little pretties raise their hands
I’m gonna sit back right easy and laugh
When Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half
With a Tenth Avenue freeze-out, Tenth Avenue freeze-out
Tenth Avenue freeze-out…
Tension is resolved. The Born to Run album took many frustrating months to make, changes included moving to a new recording studio and replacing band members, so that Bruce could achieve the sound he had in his head. The Big Man is Clarence Clemons (saxophone), an important member of the E Street Band. The Freeze-Out seems to become more positive in this verse. Is it a Freeze-Out in the poker sense? Bruce can see that his future is bright, that he’s one of “a small number of players [that will have] all the money.” ?
A Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out is…
In conclusion, a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out is a song that attempts to encapsulate three feelings:
a) Rejection/dejection in the provinces.
b) Intention to better yourself.
c) The sound of a band that’s playing tight and “cool”. The feeling of being part of that band.
Thirty-five years on from its first performance, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band still perform Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out because it’s multi-layered. It’s the story of how they broke out of New Jersey and became one of the most famous bands in history, compacted and distilled into a three minute pop song.
See also
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out is on Springsteen’s Born To Run album.
Springsteen writes about his formative years in Born to Run – his autobiography.
What’s so great about Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska?
What’s your interpretation?
Add your comment below.
There is only one “city” in the tri-state area and it’s NYC. ” From the coastline to the city” clearly means from the Jersey shore to NYC, and NYC has a Tenth ave- it’s where you land when you drive from NJ through the Lincoln tunnel- and it’s lined with tenements, which 10th Ave in Belmar is not. Back in the 70’s it was a tough neighborhood- Hell’s Kitchen – with hookers on every corner, dive bars, great food. It’s where a load of aspiring actors and musicians lived because it was cheap (I know because I lived there.) Bruce Willis was a bartender at a 10th ave dive back when. So yes to the aspirations to make it big, but a different 10th Ave.
The story I’m told is the the Belmar Library is at the corner of 10th and E Street and early on the band practiced in the basement of the library until they were “frozen out” for making too much noise.
Jennifer hit it spot on. Im born and raised in Hudson county nj and definitely can attest to her interpretation
We used to use this term “freeze out” back in the late 70’s…to rid of the pot smell on a cold winter night. Roll the windows down! Yeah that worked!
I was born and raised at the Jersey Shore (I am older than Springsteen). I went to high school in Belmar. “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” is definitely about the time the E Street Band was formed. They practiced in a house located there. Of the next part I’m not sure; however, I have heard it said that during the winter the band cuuld not afford to purchase heating oil to burn in the furnace – hence the freeze out.
Bruce Springsteen represents the “mediocrity” of rock and roll. After all these decades he doesn’t have even have a #1 hit.
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To me “10th Avenue Freeze Out” means “I’m a smuck, and I’m stuck on the outside of rock mainstream,” but what Bruce hangs on to in that smirky on stage smile is “I made it anyway being mediocre.”
Schmuck.
Seems that the importance of the Clemons addition is being overlooked. Even wiki is guilty of this. However it’s clear,from the lyrics,that all changed for the better when the big man joined the band. Other band changes were not mentioned. The missing peice was clearly the big man.