Handwritten lyrics
She forgot you quit the altar boys
'Cause you couldn't reach the handle
They banned you from the sorority
So you went and joined the vengeance vandals
You broke into the church and
Raised the poor box figuring yourself qualified
You skipped school and never changed your sox
So no one would know where you stand
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VENGEANCE VANDALS is an unreleased song written by Bruce Springsteen. The above lyrics are transcribed from a Bruce Springsteen handwritten lyric sheet for the song.
The Spring 1997 issue of the
Backstreets magazine catalogue contained an auction for an original Bruce Springsteen handwritten lyric sheet. Minimum bid for the sheet was $600. There is a small picture of the sheet printed in the catalogue; however, the lyrics are partially obscured, and some of the lines visible in the picture are rather hard to read.
This was just a scrap of paper, untitled, with some scribbled lines: 17 lines of actual song lyrics, plus 10 lines of "rhyming pairs" that are not directly related to the song. No music noted. There is no evidence that this untitled tidbit of lyrics that Backstreets auctioned off ever became a song. Springsteen (even today) often jots down a few lines of lyric on paper (just bits and pieces of lyrical ideas) but these are just fragments and it would be a mistake to classify these as songs without further supporting evidence. There is no further evidence these few lines of scribbled lyrics ever became a song.
The song is presumably called "Vengeance Vandals" and the words "vengeance vandals" only appear once, in the first verse.
Backstreets magazine described the song as having "a religious bent", and most likely being from 1972, which, considering the nature of the lyrics, would make sense as it seems to blend in with some of Springsteen's other material from that period.
Thanks Peter (from Lost In The Flood), Matthew Hare, and Pete Russell (Peteadmin at Brucebase) for the help.
If you have a better scan of the lyrics sheet, or any additional info about this song, please contact me via the below form or by email: .
List of available versions of VENGEANCE VANDALS on this website:
VENGEANCE VANDALS [Handwritten lyrics]