The Bruce Springsteen Song Lyrics Reddit Just Can't Agree On

Song lyrics can be quite a thorny subject. There's the typical issue of mishearing a word or phrase, a problem so common it has a name: mondegreen. For years, people have been skewering the words of classic rock songs like Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" (no, he's not saying "excuse me while I kiss this guy"). Then you have the even more problematic issue of what the songwriter is trying to say with their lyrics. This recently came up on Reddit, the sometimes chaotic but always entertaining social media site. On the subreddit r/BruceSpringsteen, a non-native English speaker asked a seemingly innocent question: "In the song 'Dancing in the Dark,' what does "this gun's for hire' mean?"

This hit song from Springsteen's 1984 album "Born in the U.S.A." includes the chorus: "You can't start a fire / You can't start a fire without a spark / This gun's for hire / Even if we're just dancin' in the dark." The answers, as one expects from Reddit, encompass the literal to the sexual to the academic to the ethereal. The problem with song lyrics, like poetry, is that by their nature, they're nonliteral and thus open for interpretation. Although, in the case of "Dancing in the Dark," we can go straight to the source for the answer. This isn't the first time a Springsteen lyric has been debated, either. "Thunder Road," similarly, had people arguing about the opening lines — it's "A screen door slams / Mary's dress sways," not "waves."

Many Redditors focused specifically on the historical idea of a hired gun. Some claimed it was from the "Old West" and referred to a gunslinger employed for their weapon skills. Merriam-Webster defines "hired gun" as "an expert hired to do a specific and often ethically dubious job." But, interestingly, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term "hired gun" isn't from the era of Western gunslingers at all. It didn't appear until the 1930s. Even so, the point that Redditors were making is that the character in the song — most believe it's Springsteen — is using the phrase to convey his willingness to do a job. It's here where the interpretations vary wildly from the innocent to the racy.

"In this instance he's simply using it as a cute way to say 'I'm available to dance with you,'" one Redditor wrote. Others felt it was love the song's protagonist was after. Then there's Daffodil236's take: "It means he's available to be picked up for 'dancing in the dark' aka sex. The intending [sic] is he's got a 'gun' ready to 'fire'." And there were a few Redditors who hit on what seems to be the true answer: Springsteen's manager, Jon Landau, tasked the musician with coming up with a hit single for the album, and the song was the Boss' angry response to having to write another tune. 

By February 1984, Bruce Springsteen had been working for two years on the album that would eventually be his biggest seller, "Born in the U.S.A.," but John Landau felt it was still missing something. He believed it needed a hit single that he just didn't find in the 11 songs Springsteen had already recorded and selected for the tracklist. The two verbally sparred about it. Finally, Springsteen, tired and irritated, snapped. "I've written 70 songs," he told Landau (via "Bruce Springsteen: All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track"). "You want another one, you write it." Afterward, the singer-songwriter went back to his hotel room and put pen to paper.

"That evening I wrote 'Dancing in the Dark,' my song about my own alienation, fatigue, and desire to get out from inside the studio, my room, my record, my head, and ... live," Springsteen wrote in his autobiography, "Born to Run." As he worked on the song, he felt the frustration of trying to write without inspiration — a hired gun just looking for a spark. Eventually, the lyrics began to pour out, and by morning it was done. Landau got what he wanted, and Springsteen got the biggest hit of his career. So it seems the lyric is about Springsteen's frustrations with songwriting. Although, at least according to E Street Shuffle, the Boss seemed to have intentionally made the lyric a sexually charged double entendre, so perhaps Daffodil236 and other Redditors weren't so off base.