PARTY LIGHTS

Official studio version

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I know the girls well they grow up fast where you come from
You left behind what was asked and you were married baby oh so young
Now that little girl of yours looks like she's growing up overnight
But do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights when you're lying in bed at night

He was gonna be your Romeo, you were gonna be his Juliet
These days you don't wait on Romeos, you just wait on that welfare check
While other girls your age are out with lovers taking in the night
Do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights when you're lying in bed at night

Sometimes I see you on the street and you look so tired
I know that job you've got leaves you so uninspired
When I stop by to take you out to eat
I find you lying, all dressed up on the bed, baby, fast asleep

Go!

Then as I lean across the bed, darling, to switch out the light
I wonder if you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights when you're lying in bed at night

Grab your coat and grab your hat, go in the bathroom, put that make up on
We're gonna take that little brat, we're gonna drop her off at your mom's
Yeah just give me a sign, I'm waiting on the line tonight
If you miss the party lights
If you miss the party lights
If you miss the party lights when you're lying in bed at night
Do you miss the party lights when you're lying in bed at night
Do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights
Do you miss the party lights [fades out]

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Info

PARTY LIGHTS 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 PARTY LIGHTS as released in 2015.

The song contains lyrics that were later appeared in POINT BLANK and in the additional verse that Springsteen added to his live version of Tom Waits's JERSEY GIRL.

Not to be confused with the Claudine Clark song PARTY LIGHTS that Bruce Springsteen covered live.

Studio Recording

According to Sony's logs of Bruce Springsteen's studio sessions, PARTY LIGHTS was recorded on 08 Oct 1979 at The Power Station in New York City, NY. Only one studio take of the song has surfaced; it's the official studio version (that was released in 2015) and it must have been recorded during the 08 Oct 1979 sessions at The Power Station.

Two home demo takes of PARTY LIGHTS are in circulation. The first is a solo acoustic guitar demo, recorded at Springsteen's home in Holmdel, NJ, sometime between September and December 1979. See the 1979 home demo for more details. The second is also a solo acoustic guitar demo, recorded at Springsteen's home in Colts Neck, NJ, sometime between late March and early April 1981. See the 1981 home demo for more details.

Music Video

PARTY LIGHTS debuted on 23 Nov 2015 when a music video was posted on both Bruce Springsteen's official website and Bruce Springsteen's VEVO YouTube channel. The video is directed by Thom Zimny and features the song's lyrics and a series of vintage photographs.

The Ties That Bind: The River Collection

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.

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.

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 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.

Live History

As far as it's known, Bruce Springsteen has never performed PARTY LIGHTS live.

Covers

As far as it's known, no artist has recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's PARTY LIGHTS.

Credits

Thanks Jason Franks for the correction.

Request

If you have any corrections or additional info, please contact me via the below form or by email: .

Available Versions

List of available versions of PARTY LIGHTS on this website:

PARTY LIGHTS [Official studio version]
PARTY LIGHTS [1979 home demo]
PARTY LIGHTS [1981 home demo]

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Page last updated: 06 Dec 2015