Official studio version
Now you're running with the right crowd
Well you better watch the friends you're choosing
Girl I know you're a walking winner now
But you better keep your eye on who's doing the loosing
All the faces staring down your throat
All the eyes, darling, that never closed
In your sadness, girl, maybe there's something that you ought to know
Night fire, the night fire is out in the dark burning
Night fire, the night fire is down in the street yearning
You're running with the right crowd
Money and the wine are flowing
You found a place with the right crowd
But you forgot about that storm, that storm that's blowing
(Dance on) Let the music play
(Dance on) Let the night roll to day
(Dance on) Don't listen to what they say
Just keep moving to the beat, to the beat, to the big beat
Night fire, the night fire is out in the dark burning
Night fire, the night fire is down in the street yearning
Well they punch your ticket as you grow old
Do you really get used to being bought and sold
Does a brand new dress keep out the cold
Do your brand new friends help you to keep
Your pretty eyes from seeing what they shouldn't see
The sound of breaking glass and running feet
The sound of breaking glass and running feet
Won't you tell me, baby, I got to know
Won't you tell me, baby, I got to know
Won't you tell me, baby, I got to know
Won't you tell me, baby, I got to know
Won't you tell me, baby, I got to know
Night fire, the night fire is out in the dark burning
Night fire, the night fire is down in the street yearning
Night fire, the night fire is out in the dark burning
Night fire, the night fire is down in the street yearning
Oh oh oh...
Oh oh oh...
Oh oh oh...
Oh oh oh...
[Fades out]
NIGHT FIRE is a song written by Bruce Springsteen and released on The Ties That Bind: The River Collection box set in 2015. The above lyrics are for Bruce Springsteen's official studio version of NIGHT FIRE as released in 2015 are not yet available.
NIGHT FIRE is among 25 songs compiled for a 1993 project that never came to fruition. See the "1993 Concept Album" section below for more details.
According to Sony's logs of Bruce Springsteen's studio sessions, NIGHT FIRE was recorded on 13 Jun 1979 at The Power Station in New York City, NY. Only one studio take of the song is in circulation; it's the official studio version that was released in 2015. Though the vocal is modern, the backing track seems to be original. In that case, the backing track must emanate from the 13 Jun 1979 sessions at The Power Station.
The song however is known to have been practiced earlier with the band, in late March 1979 during rehearsal sessions at Springsteen's Telegraph Hill Road property in Holmdel, NJ. Five takes from these rehearsal have appeared on bootlegs. Band rehearsal #1, band rehearsal #4, and band rehearsal #5 are full takes. Band rehearsal #2 is a partial take of an instrumental section. Band rehearsal #3 is just Springsteen and Clarence Clemons working on the saxophone solo.
In his 2012 book E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days Of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Clinton Heylin revealed that in 1993 a 25-song compilation was produced for an archival project, which presumably became the Tracks box set released in 1998. According to Brucebase, the archival concept "album" was produced in-house, presumably following the conclusion of World Tour 1992-1993, perhaps to demonstrate the quality of Springsteen's unreleased archive.
Many of these 25 songs have been subsequently released, either on the Tracks box set or as part of other projects, and some others are known outtakes that are yet to circulate among fans. However, two are only known from this 25-song list: ARNIE and THAT'S OKAY.
The Ties That Bind: The River Collection is a Bruce Springsteen box set released in 2015 on Columbia Records to celebrate the 35th anniversary of The River album. The 10"x12" box set contains four CDs, two Blu-Ray discs or three DVDs, and a hardcover 148-page coffee table book featuring 200 mostly unseen studio and live photographs, pages from Springsteen's notebooks, single covers, images and outtakes from the original album package, and other memorabilia documenting the album, plus a new essay by Mikal Gilmore. The box set was announced on 16 Oct 2015 and released to retail on 04 Dec 2015.
The first two discs consist of the 2014 remastered version of The River album. The third disc contains The River: Single Album, a 10-track album originally planned for release in 1979, under the title "The Ties That Bind". "The songs lacked the kind of unity and conceptual intensity I liked my music to have. So we went back in the studio," Springsteen wrote in his 1998 book Songs. He scrapped the project and went on to rework some of the songs and write and record some others, leading to the double-disc release the following year. All but one of these ten tracks were previously released.
| 1. | THE TIES THAT BIND | Different version previously released on The River |
| 2. | CINDY | Previously unreleased |
| 3. | HUNGRY HEART | Previously released on The River |
| 4. | STOLEN CAR | Previously released on Tracks |
| 5. | BE TRUE | Previously released as a B-side and on Tracks |
| 6. | THE RIVER | Previously released on The River |
| 7. | YOU CAN LOOK (BUT YOU BETTER NOT TOUCH) | Different version previously released on The River |
| 8. | THE PRICE YOU PAY | Different version previously released on The River |
| 9. | I WANNA MARRY YOU | Previously released on The River |
| 10. | LOOSE ENDS | Previously released on Tracks |
The fourth discs contains The River: Outtakes, a 22-track album collection consisting of outtakes from the 1979-1980 sessions that didn't make the cut for either the single- or double-album versions of The River. The CD is divided into two parts, "Record One" (the first 11 tracks) and "Record Two" (the remaining 10 tracks). The former consists of unreleased songs while the latter consists of previously released songs.
| 1. | MEET ME IN THE CITY | Previously unreleased |
| 2. | THE MAN WHO GOT AWAY | Previously unreleased |
| 3. | LITTLE WHITE LIES | Previously unreleased |
| 4. | THE TIME THAT NEVER WAS | Previously unreleased |
| 5. | NIGHT FIRE | Previously unreleased |
| 6. | WHITETOWN | Previously unreleased |
| 7. | CHAIN LIGHTNING | Previously unreleased |
| 8. | PARTY LIGHTS | Previously unreleased |
| 9. | PARADISE BY THE "C" | Live version previously released on Live/1975-85 |
| 10. | STRAY BULLET | Previously unreleased |
| 11. | MR. OUTSIDE | Previously unreleased |
| 12. | ROULETTE | Previously released on Tracks |
| 13. | RESTLESS NIGHTS | Previously released on Tracks |
| 14. | WHERE THE BANDS ARE | Previously released on Tracks |
| 15. | DOLLHOUSE | Previously released on Tracks |
| 16. | LIVING ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD | Previously released on Tracks |
| 17. | TAKE 'EM AS THEY COME | Previously released on Tracks |
| 18. | RICKY WANTS A MAN OF HER OWN | Previously released on Tracks |
| 19. | I WANNA BE WITH YOU | Previously released on Tracks |
| 20. | MARY LOU | Previously released on Tracks |
| 21. | HELD UP WITHOUT A GUN | Previously released as a B-side |
| 22. | FROM SMALL THINGS (BIG THINGS ONE DAY COME) | Previously released on The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003 3-disc edition) |
The fifth disc contains the 60-minute documentary, The Ties That Bind, produced and directed by Grammy and Emmy-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny. The documentary features an intimate interview with Bruce Springsteen as he reflects on writing and recording of The River. The film transitions between Springsteen telling the stories behind the music ─ and illustrating them with solo acoustic guitar performances ─ interspersed with period concert footage and rare photos of him and the band in and out of the studio.
The sixth disc (on the Blu-Ray release) or sixth and seventh disc (on the DVD release) feature(s) The River Tour, Tempe 1980, a new professionally shot film consisting of 24 songs from Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's 05 Nov 1980 concert at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. The film uses four cameras and is recorded in multitrack audio and clocks at 2 hours and 40 minutes. The tapes were edited by Thom Zimny and the audio was mixed by Bob Clearmountain and mastered by Bob Ludwig.
The ten songs that are not included on The River Tour, Tempe 1980 (DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, INDEPENDENCE DAY, FACTORY, RACING IN THE STREET, CANDY'S ROOM, THE TIES THAT BIND, STOLEN CAR, WRECK ON THE HIGHWAY, POINT BLANK, and BACKSTREETS) were later officially released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net.
The last disc also contains The River Tour Rehearsals, which consists of a 5-song 20-minute bonus footage from Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's private rehearsals in late September 1980 at Clair Brothers Audio in Lititz, PA. Springsteen and the band can be seen working through live arrangements of what was then unreleased material from the upcoming album.
As far as it's known, Bruce Springsteen has never performed NIGHT FIRE live.
As far as it's known, no artist has recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's NIGHT FIRE.
If you have any corrections or additional info, please contact me via the below form or by email: . Thanks in advance.
List of available versions of NIGHT FIRE on this website:
NIGHT FIRE [Official studio version]