Bruce Springsteen - If I Was The Priest (Official Audio)

WE MUST WORK FOR TRUTH
NON VIOLENCE

GREAT T SHIRT 👕

On this day in Music - 01 Nov 2020
Bruce Springsteen was at No.1 on the UK album chart with his twentieth studio album Letter to You. Since touring was not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the album was promoted with an online radio station. It features three tracks originally written prior to Springsteen's 1973 debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N. J.: 'If I Was the Priest,' 'Janey Needs a Shooter' and 'Song for Orphans.' Springsteen came across earlier recordings of these songs with John Hammond while assembling a compilation album.

I was good until the If I was a priest… all I have to say

Scheiße, ist das Lied genial.

I’ve heard the demo from 1972…I’ve heard the studio version from 2020…I’ve heard the live versions from the current tour in 2023…they all grab me in different ways. This is an amazing song from one my generations greatest songwriters. I REFUSE to turn off E-Street Radio when this song plays.

❤❤❤

This song has touched me recently; I’ve been listening to the live versions on E-Street Radio, and it is constantly running through my head. My favorite Springsteen songs are “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and “The Promised Land,” but there is something magical with this song that brings a calm over me.

Maybe the best Song of the album

👍👍👍👍

They played this at villa park last night, he intro'd it by saying how he wrote it at 22 years old and is still figuring out what its about.
I watched a documentry on the boss were he said,he wished he had sung less words and played more in some of his early songs ( greetings fromAshbury park springs to mind).this gem seems a perfect example of lyrics he wrote in 1972, held onto them and inserted them in to the pitch, tempo and general feel his music has grown into as he and the band matured.👍

What a great musician don’t like the segregation policy and price of tickets though .

❤️Beautiful song! Masterpiece! Great lyrics! I can’t stop listening to this song! Thank you very much!❤️

I heard this last night in Houston. Reminded me why he spoke to me when I was 15 - aware and accountable mind ❤

Got distracted by this whilst watching the superbowl. Wow this song is incredible. The album is a masterpiece. I've listened to it every day since it came out. Words can't describe how good he is. X

Beautiful ❤

i go to sleep listening to ur great tunes 62 and will always go to bruces gigs .. you just have to tune into a legend named the boss u rock bruce ❤

Love me some Boss

Just an incredible piece of work.

I love this and the 1972 version is even better 😊

What a song ♥️♥️❤️❤️ how boring is life without music like this ❤❤❤❤

I have been a homeless veteran I heard this song it made me pick up the pieces and rebuild
Thanks Bruce

"There's just too many outlaw tryin' to work the same line>" Wow. bits and pieces making a whole-throw down on the side of Jesus-please, Dodge City- Fargo line- too many bad boys-it says to me-life is so simple and so complex-but it gets boiled down to some pithy lines, with feeling and truth, w/great music and a feel it all voice-we've got answers---and more questions. Thanx!! Terri

Poetry with perfection. The man is pure genius. They broke the mold when they made Bruce. We won’t see that too soon again so listen hard to these magical lyrics

Hey Kids , this is how you write a song .

Great!!👏👏👏

Hvala vam za sve ove prelepe pesme.

Kralju prelepa pesma. Kad je slušam osećam previše topline oko srca. Iako sam godinama sama osećam ljubav oko sebe. Volim te Brus. ❤️🥰💋❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️.

💕💕💕💕💕💕🌍👱‍♀️🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷

💗💗💗💗💗💗🌍👱‍♀️🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷

This letter was literally written for us, old young men who forty-five years ago had in Bruce our repository of dreams and hopes. An equal, a companion, a true brother who was there to advise us and help us grow. And today when I reread that same “Letter to you” I always stop at this paragraph where "If I was a Priest" does the magic that takes me back to those times when "The Boss" embraced me with his poetry and music and told me: kid, let's go together... I am on your side... and always will be... I am your big brother, trust me.
I still do, bro! Thank you so much…

Pure magic this song THANKS Bruce your music is a spiritual experience

Lyrics:
There's a light on yonder mountain
And it's calling me to shine
There's a girl over by the water fountain
And she's asking to be mine
And Jesus is standing in the doorway
In a buckskin jacket, boots and spurs so fine
He says, "We need you son tonight up in Dodge City
'Cause there's just too many outlaws trying to work the same line"

[Chorus]
Now if Jesus was a sheriff and I were a priest
If my lady was an heiress and my Mama was a thief
If Papa rode shotgun on the Fargo line
There's still too many bad boys trying to work the same line

[Verse 2]
Well sweet Virgin Mary runs the Holy Grail saloon
Well for a nickel she'll give you whiskey and a personally blessed balloon
And the Holy Ghost is the host with the most, he runs the burlesque show
Where they'll let you in for free and they hit you when you go
Mary serving Mass on Sunday and she sells her body on Monday
To the bootlegger who paid the highest price
He don't know he got stuck with a loser, she's a stone junkie what's more she's a user
She's only been made once or twice by some kind of magic

[Chorus]
If Jesus was a sheriff and I were a priest
If my lady was an heiress and my Mama was a thief
And Papa rode shotgun on the Fargo line
There's still too many outlaws trying to work the same line

[Verse 3]
Well things ain't been the same in heaven since Big Bad Bobby came to town
He's been known to down eleven, then ask for another round
Me I've got scabs on my knees from kneeling way too long
It's about time I played the man, took a stand where I belong
And I forget about the old friends and the old times
There's just too many new boys trying to work the same line

[Chorus]
Well if Jesus was a sheriff and I were a priest
If my lady was an heiress and my Mama was a thief
And Papa rode shotgun on the Fargo line
There's just too many outlaws trying to work the same line

Fabulous.

When the best song on your most recent album is a 50 year old unreleased B side it's time to hang it up. So ends the career of America's one time self professed working class hero.

Thank you Bruce! always loved this song I hope you know how much you are loved and respected by we your forever fans. you get me thru so many tough times! thank you Boss and estreet band ! love you guys , keep on rockin!

Great album by The Boss and the E Street Band!

In true Bruce & me tradition I wasn't too taken with this song. Fast forward a couple of listens, just love it to bits.

Written in 1971 according to the Boss.

How in the heck was this song left off his first album? It's better than any track on "Greetings." Yes, that even includes "Growin' Up." The song wasn't even recorded for his first two albums. Why? The thing is a masterpiece. One of the best tracks Bruce has released since 1982. So many music fans don't understand that there is a difference between Bruce's unreleased material and the unreleased songs from other artists. Bruce often leaves his best tracks off his albums because of management decisions (see "Born In The USA" where I could remove 8 of the 12 tracks, substitute them with outtakes and create a better album, Landau and Columbia wanted a commercial album, and Max Weinbergs all-time favorite Bruce song "This Hard Land" was sacrificed). or because they don't fit the concept of the album he's writing. Also, unlike The Rolling Stones, most of Bruce's unreleased material was recorded and mixed to completion. Almost every Stones song on "Tattoo You," for instance, has overdubs, new vocals and new lyrics from Jagger.

I just came across this song and it moved me....this man's music has the ability to do that...even in bad times I can remember hearing his music and feeling uplifted....what a gift.

no subs ? i need adjucationn

Fiorella bruce..si ascolta...con la traduzione italiana.ovvio grazie.

Bruce has songs in his back pocket for DECADES, and then you have Billy Joel (basically) say "my songs say what I want to say. I finished telling new stories" IN THE EARLY 1990S! 😯 That has always blown my mind- surely Billy could have DOUBLED his discography by now

Fantastically good...amazing to know that 'The Boss' sat on this song for the best part of fifty years...

thANK you for the heads up LOVE YA *FORLIFESOBER#

Just found this lovely man, had heard of him but never knew he was so great, found him singing with the great Roy O, listen to him all the time now.

I grew up listening to the boss that was 35 years ago and he's still the boss