"I'm on Fire" is a song written and performed by American rock performer

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originato ...

. Released in 1985, it was the fourth single from his album '' Born in the U.S.A.''

History

"I'm on Fire" was first recorded in January 1982 during the first wave of ''Born in the U.S.A.'' sessions, but the album version and the single were cut on May 11, 1982, at The Power Station. This took place in impromptu fashion when Springsteen started making up a slow tune on guitar for some lyrics he had, some of which had been written for "Spanish Eyes", which would later surface on '' The Promise'', and drummer

Max Weinberg Max Weinberg (born April 13, 1951) is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on '' Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' ...

and keyboardist Roy Bittan, hearing it for the first time, created an accompaniment on the spot. The result was a moody number that merges a soft

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and b ...

beat, lyrics built around

sexual tension Sexual tension is a social phenomenon that occurs when two individuals interact and one or both feel sexual desire, but the consummation is postponed or never happens. A common scenario is where the two individuals function in proximity, such as c ...

, and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s into an effective whole; it was one of the first uses of that instrument in Springsteen's music. ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an onli ...

'' said that the song is "at once a quiet and tense tune of pent up desire." The song peaked at No. 6 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 pop singles charts in early 1985. It was the fourth of a record-tying seven Top 10 hit singles to be released from ''Born in the U.S.A.'' The single also reached No. 1 in

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for 3 weeks in July and August 1985, while two other Springsteen singles (" Dancing in the Dark" and " Born in the U.S.A.") were also in the top ten. This marked the first time for an artist to have as many as three singles inside the Dutch top ten since

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

did so in 1965.

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

for the song was shot in March 1985 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, and was directed by filmmaker

John Sayles John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and '' ...

. Unlike the previous videos from the album, the video was not a performance clip, but rather a dramatic interpretation of the song's themes. In it, Springsteen plays a

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

automobile mechanic with an attractive, married, very well-to-do, mostly unseen female customer who brings her vintage

Ford Thunderbird The Ford Thunderbird (colloquially called the T-Bird) is a personal luxury car produced by Ford from model years 1955 until 1997 and 2002 until 2005 across 11 distinct generations. Introduced as a two-seat convertible, the Thunderbird was pr ...

in for frequent servicing, always requesting that he does the work. She leaves a small bunch of keys with him when she leaves in her car, possibly including house keys implying that she wishes to start an

affair An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of ...

with him, but declines his offer to bring the car out to her house when it's ready. Later that night, he drives the car up to her mansion high in the hills above the city. He looks to a second floor window with the light on and is about to ring the bell, when he thinks better of it and drops her keys in the mailbox next to the door. He smiles wistfully and walks away down towards the city lights below. The video began airing in mid-April, received extensive

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

airplay, and later in the year won the

MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video The MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video was one of four original general awards that have been handed out every year since the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. In 2007, though, the award was briefly renamed Male Artist of the Year, and ...

Track listing

# "I'm on Fire" – 2:36 # "Johnny Bye Bye" (Springsteen,

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

) – 1:50 The B-side of the single, "Johnny Bye Bye" - Just before he was sentenced to three years for violating the Mann Act in 1962,

wrote "Bye Bye Johnny", a sequel to " Johnny B. Goode", where a mother sent her musician son off to Hollywood to be a star. "She drew out all her money from the Southern Trust, and put her little boy aboard the Greyhound Bus." It was not a big hit for Berry, but Springsteen decided to use those lines in 1981, for a new song that used most of the lyrics from "Come On Let's Go Tonight", calling it "Johnny Bye-Bye". Springsteen had first started performing it in 1981 at the tail end of

The River Tour The River Tour was a concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band that took place in 1980 and 1981, beginning concurrently with the release of Springsteen's album '' The River''. Itinerary The first leg of the tour took place ...

. It was then recorded in April 1982 during the "Electric Nebraska" sessions. The official version was recorded on January 4, 1983, at Thrill Hill West, Los Angeles, CA, and one of the mixes was released on February 6, 1985, as the B-side to "I'm On Fire". The song appeared on preliminary song lists for inclusion on what would become ''Born in the U.S.A.'' but was ultimately left off the final album.

Live performance history

"I'm on Fire" was performed only sporadically at the start of the

Born in the U.S.A. Tour The Born in the U.S.A. Tour was the supporting concert tour of Bruce Springsteen's '' Born in the U.S.A.'' album. It was his longest and most successful tour to date. It featured a physically transformed Springsteen; after two years of bodybuil ...

, but a couple of months later, it settled into a regular place in the middle of the second set. It was usually preceded by a long musical introduction, during which Springsteen spoke about not being able to sleep at night when he was young and his parents were struggling and the house was cold. The song was also given an extended coda of Springsteen's moans against waves of synthesizer. Such a rendition from an August 19, 1985, performance at

Giants Stadium Giants Stadium (sometimes referred to as Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands or The Swamp) was a stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The venue was open from 1976 to 2010, and it primarily hosted sp ...

is included on the '' Live/1975-85'' box set, but with the spoken part of the introduction edited out. In some cases, red lighting from stage floor focused on Springsteen's face was used to further accentuate the song. On the

Tunnel of Love Express The Tunnel of Love Express was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and featuring The E Street Band along with The Horns of Love that took place in 1988. It was followed by a four and a half months of the release of Springsteen's October 198 ...

, the song was still a regular. On the

Human Rights Now! Tour Human Rights Now! was a worldwide tour of twenty benefit concerts on behalf of Amnesty International that took place over six weeks in 1988. Held not to raise funds but to increase awareness of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on it ...

, Springsteen conducted crowd sing-alongs during the chorus and coda parts. After some appearances on the "Other Band" Tour, the song went into a long retirement, not emerging again until occasional performances on 2005's solo

Devils & Dust Tour The Devils & Dust Tour was a 2005 concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen performing alone on stage on a variety of instruments. It followed the release of his 2005 album ''Devils & Dust''. The tour was named the Top Small Venue Tour of 2005 b ...

, when he performed it on

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

with the red lighting back. Between 1999 and 2008, the song was only performed on eight occasions with the E Street Band: once on the Reunion Tour (June 17, 1999, Bremen), once on The Rising Tour (April 18, 2003, Ottawa) and six times on the Magic Tour. The song has made surprise return on a semi-regular basis during the European leg of the 2009 Working on a Dream tour. As of November 2009, it has been performed live 245 times.

Personnel

According to authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon: *

– vocals, guitar * Roy Bittan – keyboard *

– drums

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

Works cited * ''Born in the U.S.A. The World Tour'' (tour booklet, 1985), Tour chronology. * Marsh, Dave. ''Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s''. Pantheon Books, 1987. .

External links

Brucebase recording sessions history
{{DEFAULTSORT:I'm On Fire 1984 songs 1985 singles American soft rock songs Bruce Springsteen songs Columbia Records singles Dutch Top 40 number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video Music videos directed by John Sayles Rockabilly songs Song recordings produced by Bruce Springsteen Song recordings produced by Chuck Plotkin Song recordings produced by Jon Landau Song recordings produced by Steven Van Zandt Songs written by Bruce Springsteen Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles