The Bruce Springsteen Lyric About an Alluring Girl and Her Annoying Mother

Bruce Springsteen transformed his writing style as the 1970s progressed, going from the fantastical street tales of his early albums to a more realistic rendering of his characters. While there’s merit to both approaches, the grounded character studies of albums like Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River allowed for some different facets of his songwriting to enter the picture.

Humor was one of those facets. “Sherry Darling,” from The River in 1980, was undoubtedly the funniest set of lyrics Springsteen had recorded and released to that point, and, after all these years later, it’s still among the songs of his that are sure to bring the most chuckles.

Oh “Sherry”

Darkness on the Edge of Town, released in 1978, marked a clear demarcation line between the operatic opuses of The Boss’ early days and the grittier fare to which he gravitated afterward. But as you can probably tell from its title, Darkness is an album that doesn’t exactly evoke a lot of belly laughs.

With The River, Springsteen aimed to diversify a little bit. While there were still songs that detailed the hard times and tribulations of his working-class protagonists, he also started to let a little bit more lightness into the picture. And that meant some songs with a sense of humor.

This was a natural move for Springsteen. Those who had seen him in concert knew his patter was often filled with cornball humor. That was a huge part of what made his shows so endearing, and why they didn’t seem to run out of steam even when lasting for three hours or so. Yet the funny stuff had mostly been absent from his recorded output.

“Sherry Darling” and a few other numbers on The River started to rectify that. Springsteen still manages to inject some romance and drama into the proceedings.  But when you hear the song for the first time, what mostly sticks with you is just how effortlessly funny it is, in part because it touches on a relatable situation: an overbearing parent getting in the way of young lovers.

Revisiting the Lyrics to “Sherry Darling”

You can pretty much tell by the loosey-goosey tone of Springsteen’s vocal that “Sherry Darling” is after something a little bit different from his typical fare. That’s made doubly clear when this guy, whose last record had been so earnest and unflinching, starts the song off with a couplet that sounds like it was penned by Redd Foxx: Your Mama’s yappin’ in the back seat / Tell her to push over and move them big feet.

It turns out our protagonist is forced to deal with this troublemaker because he’s wooing her daughter. He’s at his wit’s end and keeps making threats that this scenario won’t stand much longer: Tell her she wins if she’ll just shut up / But it’s the last time that she’s gonna be ridin’ with me.

In the chorus, Springsteen continues to warn Sherry’s mom: And you can tell her there’s a hot sun beatin’ on the black top / She keeps talkin’ she’ll be walkin’ that last block / She can take a subway back to the ghetto tonight. Even as Springsteen nails the humor in that scenario, he also makes those lines flow with his attention to the meter and sharp internal rhymes.

Much as he might complain about the package deal, and how he must spend his days in traffic instead of at the Jersey shore, this guy is willing to put up with all kinds of indignity if it means that Sherry remains in his life. Sherry, we can run our arms open wide before the tide, he sings. It turns out that this guy is quite the romantic after all.

“Sherry Darling” has become a beloved part of the Springsteen canon, as it displayed him for the first time on record as the good-timey ringmaster he has always shown himself to be in concert. His put-upon narrator might not have too much patience, but he sure has a knack for the one-liner.

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