Paper

With a million songs in the world, it is virtually impossible to be original at this point. While inspiration is not impossible to spark from another piece of work, it is extremely unlikely that inspiration may come into existence from anywhere other than from an internal and original idea. Therefore, even something as small as a cover song can give way to a plethora of shoot off projects and inspirations. For example, someone as famous as Bruce Springsteen was found releasing a cover song, but there was a piece of information that was not clear to the fans of this artist. “Because of the Night”, which was at first released by a woman named Patti Smith, the chorus and melody were originally written by Springsteen. Patti Smith was a newer artist who did not receive the same amount of attention as Springsteen has had continually had throughout many years, but this song seemed to be a take off point for her career. Reviewing the variations of reasons for the song between artists, it reveals what this truly meant to these artists was a use of combined talent that eventually led to two versions of a love song. Though originally produced as a work by Bruce Springsteen, “Because of the Night” was eventually attributed to lesser known artist Patti Smith due do varying feelings of repetition in lyrics felt by Bruce Springsteen. Comment by Manuel Sanz: Here, it seems to me, is where you begin to address issues that are directly related to the purpose of this paper. The stuff above is potentially interesting, but I’m not sure I see how it relates to a claim about why these two songs sound different. Comment by Manuel Sanz: When was she a newer artist? In what year? The more you can accurately delineate some of those basics of the rhetorical situation, the easier it will be to see what, exactly, you’re comparing. Comment by Manuel Sanz: You’re starting here to get at the key question of how they’re different and why. But when I read this sentence—and I’ve read it now four times—I don’t really know what it’s trying to say. Can you clarify? You’re at a crucial point in the paper where arguments are being laid out. You’ll want to be as clear as possible. Comment by Manuel Sanz: I’m not really sure what this means. Can you explain, and then, re-word?

Collaboration was a trend when it came to these two artists. In 1975, Bruce Springsteen was in a recording studio where he met Patti Smith and decided he did not want to continue the writing of this song due to it being described as “just another love song.” This is where he concluded that this song would be better heard by its intended audience if it were recited by Patti. With the melody and chorus created by Springsteen, the song just needed some extra verses, which Patti had no trouble adding based on the fact that she wrote them overnight. While Patti had written her additional lyrics, Springsteen also had written his own version of the song with entirely different approach. Patti’s lyrics are more seductive, as if the melody were lighter hearted, with words such as “So touch me now…we are two lovers.” With lust being the overarching motif of this song, she does take less of a dominant role when she says “Come on now and try to understand how I feel under your command.” Patti adopted a theme of femininity and sex, while Springsteen imaged himself through the lens of a man who is protecting his woman. It is made clear through Springsteen’s lyrics that he was claiming he was a working man, a dominant archetype which was extremely popular during this era. With the lyrics “I work all day in the hot sun” and “What I got I earned” it is very obvious that this man wants to express his masculinity through the optic of a working man. Here, two mutually exclusive focal points of this song are displayed as ironically similar, leading to the conclusion that is this is a song of love and passion (Bruce). Comment by Manuel Sanz: Who described it this way, and why was he influenced to stop writing because of someone saying something about it? Comment by Manuel Sanz: Recited? Do you mean “sung”? Why did he conclude this? Maybe if we know more about his relationship with her, his opinions on what she did well as a singer, then you would be in a position to give a more educated guess about why this happened. As it stands, the unanswered questions that this paragraph leaves us with kind of distract from the larger claims you’re building up to. Comment by Manuel Sanz: ??? Comment by Manuel Sanz: At this point, it’s clear that you’ve got some really cool information about how the song was composed, and the role that collaboration played, and the ways that each songwriter took the song and wrote it from their own point of view. All of this information is super great—it’s among the best info of this type that any student has found—and yet, I feel there’s work to be done in how you present that information. Some important issues to address: (1) clarifying the nature of your claims about each version, (2) providing compelling evidence not only to back up these claims, but to also show why you think the songs are different in the way you’re pointing out.

It took some time for Bruce Springsteen to claim this song as his own until his official track in 2010. During the time of the creation, Springsteen was found in a legal quarrel with his previous manager. As one would be in a state of stress when handling a legal battle, Springsteen would not be thought to be as positive as he once was. His songwriting was paused due to this personal life, but that did not stop him from joining Patti when she sang this song. Since Springsteen had not been performing this song by his lonesome, the additional performance of Patti and Springsteen would tend to be in Patti’s version (Because the Night). As time went on, he decided to sing the song with his own words in his tour at the end of the 1970’s. The only time this song was listened to was when he performed it live, until 30 years after the creation it was finally released as a track. Comment by Manuel Sanz: Is this version of the song—the one they sung together in 2010—a third version that you want to compare to the other two versions? I’m a little unclear on where you’re taking us here. Comment by Manuel Sanz: I’m trying to figure how this tidbit has bearing on why the two versions sound different. It feels more like a kind of “by the way, did you know that X is true” type of statements. Which are less the kind of sentence that are going to keep us as readers on track with the larger purpose of the paper.

When Patti Smith released this song, she believed that her career was truly going to take off. In 1975, “Because the Night” had reached spot thirteen on the top 100 charts. After that, she was not necessarily the most well-known artist (Hughes). As singing was not her only talent in the arts, it did not seem to affect her as one might think. This song has not had a break in the number of remixes people tend to make of this song but the one with the most meaning would have to be when Patti Smith decided to join her kids in song. After Smith’s husband passed away due to heart failure, she decided to not only use her own talent but the talent of her children. Because this song was the only hit that Patti had ever had and her children had musical talent of their own, they decided to make a tribute to a very important man in their life (Patti). Without the passing of her husband, there would not be a version of this song that had so much meaning. This song was a representation of Patti Smith and her husband’s love as it was written while she was waiting for a call from him after their first date. Comment by Manuel Sanz: This is really good info! Tell us more about how the version recorded as a tribute to the dead husband was received by fans. Break down the lyrics to show how they could be connected to Smith’s relationship with her husband. Doing these sorts of thing will make it clearer what you think about what the Patti Smith version does that the Springsteen version does not, which is totally a big part of the purpose of the paper.

Without the similar taste in rock music this song would never had been as iconic as it was. As both artists enjoyed rock, it brought both of their talents into one song which explains the amount of publicity it was exposed to. It was said to be the uproar of the rock community as they has been in place of repetition in style (The Life). The intrinsically personal style of these songs influenced the genre positively to the point of giving people something to sing along to and dance to instead of just listening along monotonously. With new and improved the upbeat melody and by both being songs that the lyrics are intensely divergent of one another, these two melodies blend to an anti-cacophonous finale of sound. However, both Springsteen and Smith continuously perform “Because of the Night”, which is interesting due to the level of adaptation the song has been through over the years.

Overall, though Springsteen’s original melody “Because of the Night” has both had its chorus adapted as well as the style in which it is meant to be sung edited multiple times in multiple ways, the song prevails as a hallmark of rock even today. This goes to show that adaptation to an existing project is not always detrimental, and in some cases (such as the case of “Because of the Night”), can be highly beneficial to a song’s overall popularity, glamour, and catering abilities to the volatile audience of hard rock fans. Both Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith are iconographic of the rock scene of the 70’s in America, and with this song and others like it effectively solidified themselves as quintessential to any true rock fan of the era.

Sources

“Because the Night.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Nov. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Because_the_Night#cite_note-3.

“Bruce Springsteen.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen.