(anon sorry I blacked that out in case some people are still lurking on here and that that as proof of we know what but let me tell you I LAUGHED FOR TEN MINUTES XDDD)

OH HEINOUS ANON WITH EXCEEDINGLY GOOD SONG TASTE, of course you’re getting it! :D

The Price You Pay is the seventh’s song on the second record from The River (which as we said before is a double album) from 1980. It’s also one of the greatest mysteries of modern music and of Springsteen’s discography as it’s still not exactly clear to anyone except for Bruce why the fuck this song has been played live more in the last fifteen years than in the eighties when it’s a fucking masterpiece (meaning: it was played 30 times during the tour immediately following The River and then *43* in the last one plus a few others in the middle) and it should be like a staple if you ask me, but such is the mystery of how Bruce picks songs to play. Idk. IT’S A MASTERPIECE and honestly it’s not the best on the second record of that album just because Drive All Night and Point Blank exist but that’s another entire discussion.

So, without further ado, let’s go into it.

You make up your mind, you choose the chance you take You ride to where the highway ends and the desert breaks Out on to an open road you ride until the day You learn to sleep at night with the price you pay

First problem: what is this song about? Is it a love song? Is it a song criticizing something? Is it a song about the human condition? We just don’t know except that it has some of all of that and more as well. Also, same as Thunder Road and Adam Raised a Cain, at the beginning it has the title at the end of every stanza which works for a more cinematic feel because it’s a narration that doesn’t get stopped, and then goes into a refrain only twice, not every time it technically should.

First stanza: someone (the narrator? someone he’s talking to? a generic you?) takes a decision, a chance after making up his mind, breaks things with their past and rides to where the highway ends and the desert breaks which is another of the SpringsteenTM imagery standards (driving through the lone highway is a staple guys) beyond highways and through open roads until the day, ie riding towards freedom and a better life (maybe?) or a clean break with your previous. And you learn to sleep at night with the price you pay, ie you have to learn with the suffering that your choice brought and the price you paid for it (that suffering). So, again: someone tries to make their own American dream by breaking all things off with his previous life and learns to deal with the suffering they have to pay in exchange for this newfound freedom.

Now with their hands held high, they reached out for the open skies And in one last breath they built the roads they'd ride to their death Driving on through the night, unable to break away From the restless pull of the price you pay

Second stanza: now we have a they, not a you. Who are they? Some people who with hands held high, reached out for the open skies (freedom) and built the roads they’d ride to their death - so, people who as the person from the above stanza automatically did that the moment they decided to just drive away and look for freedom? We just don’t know, but they drive through the night always and they’re unable to break away from the restless pull of the price they paid to get there, so they can’t be fully free and they have that suffering on their shoulders always and even if their choice brought them to the open skies it wasn’t enough or it didn’t work out.

Oh, the price you pay, oh, the price you pay Now you can't walk away from the price you pay

Here we have our only refrain which only confirms the above - people have paid a price for that freedom (partial at least) and they can’t walk away from all the suffering it brought them. Hmmm? But it will be clearer later, I think.

Now they'd come so far and they'd waited so long Just to end up caught in a dream where everything goes wrong Where the dark of night holds back the light of the day And you've gotta stand and fight for the price you pay

Next one: we have they again - can it be the people from the stanza just before? Probably - and it’s still people fighting for a better life except that they come so far and wait so long to end up caught in a dream where everything goes wrong, so their quest has ended up badly because rather than winning and getting out and living their life, the dark of the night holds back the light of the day and the only thing that’s left for them is stand and fight for their choices even if it ruined their life. Notice the usual dream gone wrong imagery (not the first or last time it happens) and the light/day contrast which in this case is especially pushed in front (with the night holding the day back). Again, we have the second and last refrain but then the song gets slower and we start getting To The Point:

Little girl down on the strand With that pretty little baby in your hands Do you remember the story of the promised land How he crossed the desert sands And could not enter the chosen land On the banks of the river he stayed To face the price you pay

Now we’re getting somewhere specific ie: he’s talking to a little girl down on the strand with a pretty little baby in her hands (is she a young mother with the father who bailed? most likely, it wouldn’t be the first nor the last in his production) and asks her if she remembers the story of the promised land as in that Moses at the end of his life was denied entry to the promised land even if he had spent forty years in the desert leading his people to it (please I read the OT in italian don’t ask me the reason I can’t explain it in english lmao) and so even with his suffering and all the effort he put into bringing his people back home be couldn’t because of basically having slighted God once or not having always been absolutely faithful to His commands - so he had to pay the price and watch it from afar before he died without setting foot into it. Again, we have the Christian/Catholic imagery striking to Make A Point, as in, showing us a famous example of the price you pay and making the girl he’s talking to immediately recognize what he means. Notice that he’s using Old Testament imagery and the OT is the part of the bible where the whole sins of the father thing is established, ie The Other Huge AF Religious Theme In Bruce Music.

So let the game start, you better run you little wild heart You can run through all the nights and all the days But just across the county line, a stranger passing through put up a sign That counts the men fallen away to the price you pay, and girl before the end of the day, I'm gonna tear it down and throw it away

AAAAND now: ‘let the game start’ = so you want to take a clean break from everything and go? Great, in the game of life you win or you pay the price so go at it, as in run you little wild heart (little wild suggests she has a chance of managing it though since she might be little but she’s fierce) and she has to run through all the nights and all the days to even attempt to succeed.

Now, key image of the whole song: a stranger (ie someone you don’t know that you have no idea of who is doing things out of his own volition without permission) passing through put up a sign that counts the many fallen away to the price you pay, as in, he put up a reminder of everyone who died for that chance to have a better life and reach their own promised land that was denied them (tbh this song works better if you take it as a spiritual sequel to The Promised Land on Darkness ie a song about doing just that but way more optimistic about it, and spoilers, TPL is not exactly optimistic the way a Thunder Road is) so basically telling you ‘don’t you even try, you’re going to die, too many people tried and never came back, just stay where you are and don’t go for it, you might not find the promised land but you’ll live and who cares if your life is mediocre, right?’.

Fair enough. And what does the narrator want to do?

Before the end of the day, he’s going to tear it down and throw it away, as in: he doesn’t give two fucks about other people not managing it and is more than ready to pay his price if it means that he has a chance to and he wants to so no one else also sees it, and all of the people who are willing to pay that price have a chance to get to that promised land instead of dying on the other side of the river for someone else’s sins. This is basically about wanting to reclaim your own choices and getting away from something you don’t want and for which you have to suffer but for which you should be able to pay the price and succeed rather than do it and be confined to unhappiness, and you cannot do it thinking about all the people who didn’t manage it, otherwise that promised land is going to stay empty forever while everyone should have a chance at it, and again, it’s about getting rid of ‘you can’t do this because you have to pay for other people’s mistakes’ and ‘you can’t have what you dream of because the way is too hard’. Sure it’s hard and you have to suffer, but if you don’t tear that one sign down then you will never get there in the first place and maybe you should start by doing exactly that.

:)