The begins starts with a brief drum fill then moves straight into the main melody, played by the piano. The saxophone then honks away, and the song has a 50's-60's feel to it. Bruce shouts "Yeah!" and then starts singing. But the relentlessly upbeat music is fitted to uneasy and uncomfortable lyrics.
"Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, jack/I went out for a ride and I never went back."
So here we are in the first two lines of the song and already we find out that the person in the song has a wife and kids, and one day he simply up and leaves them. The song does not get into what reason does the person in the song give for his actions?
"Like a river that don't know where it's flowin'/ I took a wrong turn and I just kept goin'."
There are no excuses in the song, no regrets. Just matter of fact statements. On of the Themes that comes though is that of a river, which is also the central image in the song "The River." By comparing his actions to those of a river, the narrator is essentially saying that he has no control over his actions, that nature is shaping his actions, the same way that nature shapes the river.
This all leads us nicely into the chorus, "Everybody's got a hungry heart/everybody's got a hungry heart/lay down your money and you play your part/everybody's got a hungry heart." The person in the song is saying, obviously, that everyone has a "hungry heart," meaning that everyone needs affection and attention, no matter where it comes from. And that everyone is hungry, or greedy, for love and affection. Everybody always wants more than what they currently have. It doesn't matter that the narrator is married and has children, he is still susceptible to the charms of the opposite sex. He still wants something more.
The first verse also references Springsteen's recurring picture of travel, of escaping, of getting away from things, usually by car. The person in the song simply drives away from his wife and kids. He is, running away from responsibility. In the second verse, we discover what he finds once he stops running.
"I met her in a Kingstown bar/We fell in love I knew it had to end."
Okay, so he meets a woman in a bar, but what does he know "had to end"? His marriage, or this illicit relationship?or his running away from responsibility. I think it is the marriage that is ripped apart, based on the next two lines.
"We took what we had and we ripped it apart/Now here I am down in Kingstown again."
So the person in the song and his mistress ripped apart their current relationships to be together. (Is she married too?) And now the narrator is back in Kingstown again, to see his mistress. Because, well, both the person in the story and his mistress have hungry hearts.
At the very end of the second chorus, Bruce lifts his voice up on the last syllables of "hungry" and the song changes key upwards. There is a tasty little organ solo that leads us into the final verse.
"Everybody needs a place to rest/Everybody wants to have a home."
Which is true, but the narrator had a home and a place to rest, and he threw it all away. This sounds like more self-justification to me.
"Don't make no difference what nobody says/Ain't nobody like to be alone."
The person in the song is justifying his actions by saying that people naturally seek companionship. But again, the had companionship in his marriage, and left it. Perhaps the pesron in the song would say that even though he was married, he was still really alone, because it was an unfulfilling relationship. The song then closes with another repetition of the chorus, and Bruce gets in some scatting on the fade out.
"Hungry Heart" asks some tough questions about love and relationships: when are we happy, when are we satisfied, and what happens when we should be satisfied, by society's standards of relationships, but really aren't satisfied. What happens when someone tries to break out of those relationships? What's the emotional fall out from the decision to "just keep goin'"? Do we always want what we can't have? Does everyone really have a "Hungry Heart" that is always searching for something "better," something new and fresh, no matter what the cost is to others?
That's kind of a depressing way to look at relationships. But these questions are all worth pondering.
"Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went backLike a river that don't know where it's flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody's got a hungry heart
I met her in a Kingstown bar
We fell in love I knew it had to end
We took what we had and we ripped it apart
Now here I am down in Kingstone again
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Everybody needs a place to rest
Everybody wants to have a home
Don't make no difference what nobody says
Ain't nobody like to be alone
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody's got a hungry heart"
There are stories all of the Bible of people who go in search of fulfilment. There are also stories of people that run from responsibilities. The story of the Prodigal son is one such story.
We find it here in Luke 15:11-32
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Everybody's got a hungry heart. The younger son had a "Hungry Heart" He wanted what was his, He wanted to go an see the sights and sound of the world. He was prepared to turn his back on his own family to do so. I was not till he had "Spent everything" that he came to his senses. This story ends differently from Springsteen's lyrics. But the emotions are still the same. The hunger for the greener grass on the other side propelled this young man into a risky life. To which he may not have returned or recovered from. From the story we can see the essentially this story of Jesus is a story of reconciliation. Both the gospel story and the lyrics and story of the song that Springsteen wrote and sung are about the heart. 1. The desire of the heart. 2. The responsibilities of the heart. 3. Serving pleasures rather than providing for those who depend on us. There are other themes that are true to the song and the gospel story - Loneliness, Greed, Love of Money, Running Away.
It's good to be hungry for the right things in life. It's okay to have a hungry heart. It's when that hunger is for things that damage others or that hunger is about us running from our responsibilities. What is true from the song is that the person Springsteen is singing about has no remorse about his actions. The younger son in the gospel story does.
In your life this week take time to thank Jesus for God given hunger and avoid the appetite and the diet that takes us off track and causes us to act irresponsible.
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