Thanks to The New Yorker,<\/em><\/a> fans on July 17 got their answer on what Mary\u2019s dress is doing (it\u2019s \u201csways,\u201d according to Springsteen\u2019s manager and producer Jon Landau). \u201cThat’s the way he wrote it in his original notebooks, that’s the way he sang it on Born to Run<\/em>, in 1975, that’s the way he has always sung it at thousands of shows, and that’s the way he sings it right now on Broadway. Any typos in official Bruce material will be corrected. And, by the way, \u2018dresses\u2019 do not know how to \u2019wave,\u2019” Landau says in the article.<\/p>\n But a close reading by Jones provides a deeper analysis.<\/p>\n \u201cMy opinion is that Bruce has performed it both ways and thus there is no 100% accurate answer,\u201d Jones says. \u201cBeing a text person, my approach is to go to the text. The liner notes for Born to Run<\/em> have \u2018waves.\u2019 There are, however, other instances in which liner notes have errors in Springsteen releases, so we can’t rely completely on the printed lyrics. One could argue that if \u2018waves\u2019 had been a proofreading error, the lyric would have been corrected on his Greatest Hits<\/em>. Greatest Hits<\/em> has \u2018waves.\u2019 Lest we think that this is complete confirmation, the liner notes for Live<\/em> 1975-85 have \u2018sways.\u2019 But the version on Live<\/em> is a different performance of the song on Born to Run<\/em> and Greatest Hits<\/em> have the studio recording, while Live<\/em> has a performance from 10\/18\/75 at the Roxy.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones clearly is a passionate fan. But it wasn\u2019t until attending graduate school at Harvard that she purchased her first album. She was writing her dissertation on rivers as a symbol of Roman literature, when while browsing in a record store she happened upon an album called The River<\/em>. With the connection between the title and the themes of her paper, \u201cit seemed like it all was coming together. I was kind of obsessed with that for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n A few years ago, she published an article in Boss: The Biannual Online Journal of Springsteen Studies<\/em><\/a> that looks at Springsteen\u2019s relationship to the American folk tradition and the ways in which he creates a dialogue with that tradition in order to offer his own distinct perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the folk tradition, songs evolve and change over time,\u201d Jones says. Applying that to \u201c<\/em>Thunder Road,\u201d then, \u201cOne could ask what was the original conception? Does \u2018waves\u2019 pre-date \u2018sways\u2019; or vice versa? An early handwritten lyric sheet for \u2018Thunder Road\u2019 (written while Bruce was still trying out names for the girl \u2013 among them Anne, Chrissie, Christine and Angelina), has \u2018sways.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The folk tradition is among the themes Montclair State students explore during the popular summer course, Selected Topics: Bruce Springsteen. It\u2019s as introspective as Springsteen is on stage with his Broadway musical and his recent autobiography.<\/p>\n \u201cI ask our students to do a lot,\u201d Jones says. \u201cI give them articles to read and quite a lot of listening. Most of them are already into Springsteen or their parents are really into Springsteen. There’s something in their life that has made them want to understand this better.\u201d<\/p>\n A class sampling includes Springsteen\u2019s social and political works. \u201cWe talk about themes that show up in Springsteen lyrics that are also essential in his environment, including the working class as a broad topic and de-industrialization and what was happening in the 1970s. I juxtapose Vietnam and 9\/11 as major events that Springsteen responded to in a big way with Born in the U.S.A. <\/em>and his work with Vietnam veterans and then the Rising<\/em> tour after 9\/11. We talk about Bruce’s reflection on his own celebrity, how he depicts fathers and sons, Catholic imagery and how his faith comes up in his music.\u201d<\/p>\n And they talk about his lyrics. Which brings Jones back to her analysis of \u201cThunder Road\u201d and the chorus of debate over \u201csways\u201d and \u201cwaves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo there is textual authority for both. The \u2018final draft\u2019 in the Born to Run <\/em>printed lyrics has \u2018waves.\u2019 It also has the name \u2018Mary\u2019 and we know that Bruce had tried out other names in that spot, so we could say that \u2018sways\u2019 was in an early draft and was subsequently edited to \u2018waves.\u2019 Unlike the name, however, in subsequent performances of the song, \u2018sways\u2019 makes a reappearance although the name never changes once he settles on \u2018Mary.\u2019 For that reason, I think that the answer truly is that it is both and which one we get depends on how Bruce recreates the song in each performance.\u201d<\/p>\n The summer class ends August 5. (Maybe Springsteen will join to weigh in.)<\/p>\n Story by Staff Writer Marilyn Joyce Lehren<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Prudence](\"\/responsive-media\/cache\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/07\/SpringsteenPrudenceJones-scaled.jpg.0.1x.generic.jpg\")