Sum 41 were the obvious choice to illustrate this week's entry in the countdown... I was always partial to getting a Fat Lip from them.
There was early agreement over this week's winner, although those of you who aren't big Boss fans were keen to offer worthy alternatives.
George was obviously going to try his best to steer me away from New Jersey, with a couple of fine suggestions...
Iron & Wine & Calexico - Prison on Route 41
Eddie Cochran - Somethin' Else
My car's out front and it's all mine
Just a '41 Ford, not a '59
No, I don't think that was suggested for #59, George, but it should have been.
And what a riff on that song! Stolen - blatantly - by Liam Lynch... Whatever!
Our other resident non-Springsteen fan is C... although I have to say, I felt she was scraping the barrel a little with her offering...
The Dave Matthews Band - #41
Not sure what my final verdict is on Dave Matthews... but he's no Eddie Cochran. He's not even Hootie & The Blowfish.
Onto those of you who accepted the inevitable but offered alternatives for variety, starting with Martin (who only owns one Bruce Springsteen album, so I might have to send him some more in the post)...
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - US 41
Pretty good, Martin, but if we're going with Tom, I'm probably going to have to bend my own rules a little and offer this one...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - American Girl
It was kind of cold that night
She stood alone on her balcony
She could the cars roll by
Out on 441
Like waves crashin' in the beach
And for one desperate moment there
He crept back in her memory
God it's so painful
Something that's so close
And still so far out of reach
Sleeper - Factor 41
I was equally surprised that Alyson didn't suggest this one...
The Bee Gees - New York Mining Disaster 1941
Or even this one, from the same year...
Harry Nilsson - 1941
Thanks, guys, leave the heavy lifting to me, that's fine.
Lynchie, meanwhile, offered an alternative which was a new one to me...
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Born In Chicago
I was born in Chicago 1941
I was born in Chicago in 1941
Well, my father told me,
"Son, you'd better get a gun."
Sounds a bit like what my dad told me about Huddersfield. Lynchie adds...
"The song was written by the wonderfully named Nick Gravenites, who's worth checking out."And from the sound of that, I concur.
Today's final suggestion was a lyrical one, from Rigid Digit...
The Allman Brothers - Ramblin' Man
My father was a gambler down in Georgia
He wound up on the wrong end of a gun
And I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus
Rollin' down Highway 41
All of which brings us to today's obvious choice, as identified by The Swede, Alyson, Lynchie and Martin. Inspired by the death of Amadou Diallo, an innocent young black man who was mistaken for a rape suspect by plain clothes police officers in 1999 and shot dead.
Life begins next week. We may be some time.
