"Prove It All Night" is the penultimate song on

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 originat ...

's fourth studio album ''

Darkness on the Edge of Town ''Darkness on the Edge of Town'' is the fourth studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 2, 1978, by Columbia Records. The album marked the end of a three-year gap between albums brought on by contractu ...

'', and the first single released from it.

Content

In keeping with a storied tradition of rock songs, these lyrics equate love with the surrendering of a woman's virtue. The protagonist promises to prove his love all night, a vow that can be seen as either opportunistic or youthfully optimistic, depending on one's point of view. Thus it can be experienced as either humorous or sincere. Lyrically the song is similar to other Springsteen numbers such as "

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" is a 1973 song by Bruce Springsteen, from his ''The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle'' album, and is especially famed as a concert number for Springsteen and The E Street Band. The song, which clocks in at ju ...

" and " Thunder Road". The entire song contains a sense of optimism that the two individuals' quest for love will someday be realized but, at the same time, it seems that the world is closing in on them in that the characters' chances of falling in love are growing more limited as time passes. The song begins with a piano intro played by

Roy Bittan Roy J. Bittan (born July 2, 1949) is an American musician best known as a long-time member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Nicknamed "The Professor", Bittan joined the E Street Band in 1974. He plays the piano, organ, accordion and synthe ...

. The rhythm guitar work is quite faint, but fits the groove and feel of the song. Following the second stanza is a sax solo which precedes a somewhat intricate-sounding guitar solo by Springsteen. The solo, played quite fast, effectively voices the protagonist's mounting desire to elope. ''

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 online ...

'' called it a "winner" with "strong upfront beat, chimes, piano/organ and larenceClemons' rich and rough sax" and "effective

hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved or indented, such that it can be used to grab onto, connect, or otherwise attach itself onto another object. In a number of uses, one e ...

, raw singing, ndsearching guitar solo." An earlier take of the song has different lyrics; several lines and verses from "Something in the Night" were used instead.

Chart performance

The single gained little traction with

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

radio stations, reaching only #33 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. However, it gained considerable play on

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

and

album-oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. Album-oriente ...

radio formats.

Live performance

"Prove It All Night" has been a regular selection in Springsteen and

E Street Band The E Street Band is an American rock band, and has been musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. For the bulk of Springsteen's recording and performing caree ...

concerts since its release. To Springsteen fans, by far the most famous arrangement of it occurred during their 1978 Tour, when it was reshaped into an eleven-minute epic with a long, howling guitar-over-piano introduction and a frenetic organ-and-guitar-over-drums outro. Excerpts of one such performance from a July 1, 1978,

Berkeley Community Theatre Berkeley Community Theater is a theater located in Berkeley, California, United States, on the campus of Berkeley High School. The theater is administered by the Berkeley Unified School District. Description The theater building, a City of Berke ...

show were heard during a syndicated radio interview with New York disc jockey Dave Herman on the ''

King Biscuit Flower Hour The ''King Biscuit Flower Hour'' was an American syndicated radio show presented by the D.I.R. Radio Network that featured concert performances by various rock music recording artists. History The program was broadcast on Sunday nights from 19 ...

'', and this version would become a fan favorite still referred to decades later; one of the criticisms of Springsteen's 1986 '' Live/1975-85'' box set was that it omitted any such version of the song. Notably, the melody of the extended introduction has been said to have served as the basis for

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album '' Horses''. Called the "punk poe ...

's 1979 song "

Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Nobility Anhalt-Harzgerode *Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) Austria * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198 * Frederick ...

", though this has not been verified by Smith. "Prove It All Night" was again performed in this arrangement on two occasions on the River Tour in November 1980. A live version of the song did finally appear on Springsteen's 2001 release '' Live in New York City'' documenting the Reunion Tour, as did a Rising Tour performance on the 2003 '' Live in Barcelona'' DVD, but both were in a shorter, more conventional treatment. In a concert in Barcelona during the

Wrecking Ball Tour The Wrecking Ball World Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to promote Springsteen's seventeenth studio album, ''Wrecking Ball'', which was released on March 5, 2012. It was the first tour for the E Street Band with ...

, Springsteen surprised the audience by playing the song again in the 1978 arrangement. He also played it in Manchester to a rapturous response from the crowd. It made its first appearance in the United States since 1980 by request at

Fenway Park Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home of the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and since 1953, its only Major League Base ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

on August 15, 2012. It continued to make semi-regular appearances on the remainder of the tour, as well as on 2014's follow-up

High Hopes Tour The High Hopes Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band with special guest guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. The tour was seen as a continuation of his previous tour and was in support of eighteenth st ...

. It was also played by request in São Paulo, Brazil, on September 18, 2013.

Acclaim

The song was ranked as the #6 single of

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

Dave Marsh Dave Marsh (born March 1, 1950) is an American music critic, and radio talk show host. He was an early editor of ''Creem'' magazine, has written for various publications such as ''Newsday'', ''The Village Voice'', and ''Rolling Stone (magazine), ...

and Kevin Stein and as one of the 7500 most important songs from 1944 through 2000 by

Bruce Pollock The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a ...

Personnel

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

– vocals, guitars *

– piano *

Clarence Clemons Clarence Anicholas Clemons Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death in 2011, he was the saxophonist for The E Street Band. Clemons released several s ...

– saxophone *

Danny Federici Daniel Paul Federici (January 23, 1950 – April 17, 2008) was an American musician, best known as the organ, glockenspiel, and accordion player and a founding member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. In 2014, Federici was posthumously induct ...

– organ *

Garry Tallent Garry Wayne Tallent (born October 27, 1949), sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being bass player and founding member of the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band si ...

– bass *

Steven Van Zandt Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin ...

– guitars, vocal harmonies *

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'' a ...

– drums

References

External links

Lyrics
{{Authority control 1978 singles Bruce Springsteen songs Songs written by Bruce Springsteen Song recordings produced by Jon Landau Columbia Records singles 1977 songs Song recordings produced by Bruce Springsteen