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From the Darkness On The Edge Of Town album, this is an "emotionally autobiographical" song as Bruce calls it. It is a dark track detailing the complicated relationship between Bruce and his father Douglas Springsteen, a relation that's bitter, dramatic, but loving in its painful way. The aggression and anger on this track will later diminish in later songs, from INDEPENDENCE DAY to LONG TIME COMIN', of which Christopher Phillips writes in Backstreets Magazine #83/84:
"Adam Raised a Cain" is the main reference point here, as "Long Time Comin'" spits in the face of that song's "You know it's never over, it's relentless as the rain." Compare "You're born into this life paying for the sins of somebody else's past" with "Well, if I had one wish in this godforsaken world, kids / It'd be that your sins would be your own."
Bruce wrote this song during his lawsuit with former manager Mike Appel, when he was living in a farm in Holmdel, NJ. From his introduction to INDEPENDENCE DAY during the 19 Dec 1978 show at Paramount Theatre, Portland, OR, one can conclude that the song was written around late 1976 or early 1977.
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