Bruce Springsteen's manager settles Born to Run's Thunder Road lyric debate once and for all

20 July 2021, 12:22 | Updated: 20 July 2021, 12:32

The Boss' longtime manager and co-producer Jon Landau has settled the debate on a commonly misheard lyric on Springsteen's Thunder Road track.

Bruce Springsteen's 1975 Born to Run LP is among the canon of the most iconic American records of all time.

His third studio album, which includes the anthem of the same name, kicks off with album opener, Thunder Road, which has long been the subject of great debate.

It's opening lyrics: "The screen door slams/Mary's dress sways," seem to not only be misheard by fans as "waves", but also seems to have been written that way in official Bruce Springsteen merch as well.

Now Jon Landon - Springsteen's manager and co-producer - has set the record straight in a letter to The New Yorker's David Remnick.

"The word is ‘sways,'" Landau wrote. "That’s the way he wrote it in his original notebooks, that's the way he sang it on 'Born to Run,' in 1975, that’s the way he has always sung it at thousands of shows, and that’s the way he sings it right now on Broadway."

He added: "Any typos in official Bruce material will be corrected. And, by the way, 'dresses' do not know how to 'wave.'"

Bruce Springsteen - Thunder road

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Bruce Springsteen recently unveiled his Dustland collaboration collab with The Killers, which is a re-recording of the band's 2008 single A Dustland Fairytale.

The Killers took to their socials to confirm the news, writing on Twitter: "Looks like the cat’s out of the bag. When The Boss decides it’s time to make an announcement, it’s time to make an announcement."

Watch the official music video for Dustland here:

The Killers - Dustland (Official Music Video) ft. Bruce Springsteen

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