Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Won't you help me please?

I am listening to Springsteen's Wrecking Ball tonight, but the song stuck in my head is from The River.

The singer in "Wreck on the Highway" comes upon a wreck on the highway. "I seen a young man lying by the side of the road/He cried Mister, won't you help me please."

In the next few lines, you learn he died, so he wasn't exactly lucky. But I am often envious of him.

He really needed help. Who is going to think a dying man is a jerk for asking for help?

But someone who asks for a cup of tea when the helper has a lot of other stuff to deal with? Well, the asker  himself might feel like a jerk.

3 comments:

Tony said...

You know, I never assumed the guy in "Wreck on the Highway" died. I know there's a line about "...a state trooper knockin' in the middle of the night, to say..." but I always assumed it was just speculation on the part of the storyteller after seeing such a horrible sight. I figured since they took him away in an ambulance to Riverside (which I'm guessing is a hospital, not a morgue!) he was still alive.

Maybe that makes me a glass is half full kind of person.

drevets said...

And that's officially the most anyone's thought about a springsteen song.

Matt said...

True, how can the singer know the guy died?

And no one can ever think about Springsteen too much.


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