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Jungleland Lyrics

Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Album: Born To Run

The Rangers had a homecoming
In Harlem late last night
And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine
Over the Jersey state line
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge
Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain
The Rat pulls into town, rolls up his pants
Together they take a stab at romance
And disappear down Flamingo Lane

Well, the Maximum Lawmen run down Flamingo
Chasing the Rat and the barefoot girl
And the kids 'round there live just like shadows
Always quiet, holding hands
From the churches to the jails
Tonight all is silence in the world
As we take our stand
Down in Jungleland

The midnight gang's assembled
And picked a rendezvous for the night
They'll meet 'neath that giant Exxon sign
That brings this fair city light
Man, there's an opera out on the Turnpike
There's a ballet being fought out in the alley
Until the local cops, Cherry-Tops, rips this holy night
The street's alive as secret debts are paid
Contacts made, they flash unseen
Kids flash guitars just like switchblades
Hustling for the record machine
The hungry and the hunted
Explode into rock 'n' roll bands
That face off against each other out in the street
Down in Jungleland

In the parking lot the visionaries dress in the latest rage
Inside the backstreet girls are dancing to the records that the DJ plays
Lonely-hearted lovers struggle in dark corners
Desperate as the night moves on
Just one look and a whisper, and they're gone

Beneath the city, two hearts beat
Soul engines running through a night so tender
In a bedroom locked in whispers
Of soft refusal and then surrender
In the tunnels uptown, the Rat's own dream guns him down
As shots echo down them hallways in the night
No one watches when the ambulance pulls away
Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light

Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz
Between what's flesh and what's fantasy
And the poets down here don't write nothing at all
They just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of a knife, they reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand
But they wind up wounded, not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland

Comments/Interpretations

by Barb on 1/29/2009 10:16pm
This is one of the most beautiful songs ever written! Bruce is amazing and really brings it home! This is where dreams begin, with Bruce Springsteen's music.

by bobo on 2/12/2009 6:15pm
bruce is da man!

by poettesse on 4/5/2009 7:51pm
some say Don McLean's 'American Pie' is the great, All-American song. Huh-uh. It's 'Jungleland.' Springsteen should be American Poet Laureate.

by Kev on 6/4/2009 3:33pm
THIS IS THE MOST AMERICAN SONG I'VE EVER HEARD IT'S AMAZING!

by Mike on 9/2/2009 12:45am
I don't know what the hell he is saying, but i know he is saying it to me, thru me, and for me!!!

by johnb on 2/17/2010 6:36pm
Pure street poetry, man.

by rage on 1/25/2011 11:40am
great song, but he is a freaking commie.

by TJ on 3/23/2011 4:24pm
in referenxe to rage - he might not be a commie but like a lot of musicians/actors he should stick to music/acting instead of getting political unless he wants to run for a political office like mayor(clint eastwood), governor(swarzanigger/reagan), senator(sunny bono/fred thompson)

by steven on 5/12/2011 3:52pm
the sax solo....it's religous!!!

by JEFF on 5/29/2011 12:38am
In the third verse i think the correct lyrics are: The street's alive as secret debts are paid
Contacts made, they VANISH unseen.
Bruce Springsteen rocks.

by Tim on 6/19/2011 5:08pm
RIP Clarence Clemons - your sax solo on this track was a work of genius! Heaven just gained the greatest sax player there ever was and ever will be.

by michael on 6/20/2011 1:31am
I sat in the first row at the Roxy in 1974 or 75 at Springsteen's first West Coast appearance Small venue and Bruce was about 10 feet away and amazing. But Clarence Clemons has had an incredible lasting presence with me every time I hear Jungleland and 10th Avenue Freeze Out. Great night. RIP Clarence.

by Donovan on 2/13/2012 10:32pm
The Raw emotion that he put into this song is amazing. He is there with the greats like Cole Porter and George M Cohen.

by Matthew on 3/16/2012 5:19pm
absolutely awesome

by Deyanira Estevez on 7/24/2012 8:28pm
This song is so alive just as if were written last night. Wow Bruce Many Blessings n many years to come...

by Snozzy on 7/31/2012 3:33pm
. . . "Breath taking!!", a finely honed jewel, filled w/pearls and honesty, very darn yummy! Thanks, again to Bruce & Band and God rest Clarence Clemens, amen.

by Keith on 4/21/2013 3:42pm
Barb - Truly one of the most beautiful songs ever written! Don't we all feel this way sometime?

by Frank on 8/18/2013 5:35pm
I think we will never again hear a song, or feel the emotions, of a song like "Jungleland". Unique in every sense of the word. This was real poetry combined with beautiful music. And yes, Clarence Clemons' sax solo is unforgettable.

by Pat on 7/18/2014 12:04am
1 of a kind. Powerful, Heart breaking, Real, and the best brass Clarence! God Bless.

by �rjan on 10/30/2014 3:29am
The first version of this song that i ever heard was their live preformance from NYC in 2001, and in my opinion it's one of te best songs and preformances ever!