Second By Second: Bruce Springsteen - Queen Of The Supermarket

Bruce Springsteen's latest album Working On A Dream was released yesterday to generally good reviews - we at Blender give it three stars. However, one of the album's tracks has been generating some controversy. As Stereogum points out, reviews of this song in particular are rather uniformly negative. Can a song be that bad? Especially if it's by Bruce Springsteen? If the song is about a girl who works at a supermarket, and the song is called Queen Of The Supermarket, it just might be. Press play on the YouTube fan video below and follow along.



00:00
We are ushered into the supermarket, metaphorically and musically, by a soft piano's upper ranges, plus a tinkle of some kind that could either be a glockenspiel or a synth. It's pretty, but so pretty that one will need to be careful with the accompanying lyrics; if the lyrics are also saccharine, we could have a problem. Also, the piano line sounds somewhat reminiscent of the love theme from St. Elmo's Fire. Hmmm.

00:16
"There's a wonderful world where all you desire, and everything you've longed for is at your fingertips, where the bittersweet taste of life is at your lips." Um... OK, this world you speak of sounds inviting, but please don't say you mean a supermarket.

00:35
"Where aisles and aisles of dreams await you..." Please don't let this be about a supermarket...

00:50
"I'm in love with the Queen Of The Supermarket..." Damn, it really IS about a supermarket.

01:01
"A dream awaits in aisle number two." Is this parody? Not on an album by Bruce Springsteen, especially one called Working On A Dream, it isn't.

01:15
"I see a fool so blissfully unaware, that they're in the presence of something wonderful and rare." This is an example of the simple lyrics of longing that late-era Bruce perfected on Girls In Their Summer Clothes. Okay, the fact that the longing takes place at the supermarket is not ideal, but we'll take it.

01:47
Second chorus. Max Weinberg switches from rim click to fat backbeat. The strings appear all of a sudden as...

02:07
...a Phil Spector wall of sound emerges before us! "With guidance from the gods above
At night I pray for the strength to tell the one I love..." Yes! Classic, 60s AM radio-style Bruce.

02:22
"I take my place in the checkout line, for one moment her eyes meet mine, and I'm lifted up, lifted up, lifted up, lifted up, lifted away". At this point, I'm on board.

02:38
Back to the chorus, which doesn't sound as lame as it once did.

03:00
Yikes, check that, maybe it sounds... more lame? As Rob Tannenbaum pointed out, this, out of nowhere, sounds like Meat Loaf. Is that Bruce singing? What did Pattie do to get him to reach those notes?

03:12
If you're following along at home, our narrator has made it through checkout and is in the parking lot, but he can't leave his girl just yet: "As I lift my groceries into my cart, I turn back for a moment and catch a smile, that blows this whole fucking place apart." THAT'S RIGHT, the F word. Know what? This infatuation may be getting serious. And creepy.

03:48
The song quietly morphs into a daydreamscape, as the narrator presumably drives home, hoping he'll have forgotten something so he can tell his wife he needs to go back to the grocery store to pick up, um, you know, whatever it is we need. Whatever it is, I'll go back! Does anyone need anything at the fucking supermarket?!

Final Impressions:
The lyrics and imagery may be heavy-handed, but Bruce certainly captures the small ecstasies of random fantasies and heart flutters that mundane encounters have the potential to produce. So Bruce's fantasies take place at the grocery store - so what? It's no different from your fantasy about the Starbucks chick, or the dude at Barnes & Noble. The Meatloaf part is bad, but overall, the song is tolerable. It's certainly not the worst song he's ever written; that honor goes to... um... hmmm... going to have to get back to you on that.