SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT^©

Matthew Ryan's version

I'm riding down Kingsley figuring I'll get a drink
Turn the radio up loud so I don't have to think
I take her to the floor looking for a moment when the world seems right
And I tear into the guts of something in the night

In the street you're born with nothing, and you're better off that way
Soon as you've got something they send someone to try and take it away
You can ride this road 'till dawn without another human being in sight
You're just wasted on, hm, something in the night

Nothing is forgotten or forgiven, when it's your last time around
I got stuff running 'round my head I just can't live down

When we found the things we loved, they were crushed and dying in the dirt
We tried to pick up the pieces, and get away without getting hurt
But they caught us at the state line, and burned our cars in one last fight
We're left burned and blind, hm, chasing something in the night

Page last updated: 03 Feb 2008

The above lyrics correspond to Matthew Ryan's version that was released on the tribute album Light Of Day: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen in 2003 [read liner notes below]. It was also released that same year on Ryan's album Happiness.

Various artists -- Light Of Day: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen 3 CD - Good Sounds (DM 797-02) - Spain, 2003 2 CD - Good Sounds (DM 797E-02) - Spain, 2003 2 CD - Schoolhouse Records (SHR0022-2) - USA, 2003 2-CD - Sony (MHCP-928/9) - Japan, 2005 2 CD - Revolver (REVXD 244) - UK, 2005

Matthew Ryan -- Happiness CD - One Little Indian (?) - UK, 2003

Track credits:
Matthew Ryan: vocal, guitar
Recorded and mixed June 2002 by Matthew Ryan on a Tascam 4-track porta-studio.

List of available versions of SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT on this website:

• Album's version (more details)
• Early outtake (slightly different to the album's version)
• Live 01 Aug 1976 version (very different to the album's version)
• Live 22 Aug 1976 version (close to the live 01 Aug 1976 version)
• Live 09 Oct 1976 version (very different to the album's version)
• Live 27 Oct 1976 version (very different to the album's version)
• Live 28 Oct 1976 version (very different to the album's version)
• Live 30 Oct 1976 version (different to the album's version)
• Live 04 Nov 1976 version (similar to the live 30 Oct 1976 version)
• Live 13 Feb 1977 version (different to the album's version)
• Live 14 Mar 1977 version (similar to the album's version)
• Live 19 May 1978 take #1 (similar to the album's version)
• Live 19 May 1978 take #2 (similar to the album's version)
• Live 31 May 1978 version (similar to the album's version)
• Live 18 Oct 2002 version (slightly different to the album's version)
• Live 07 Oct 2005 version (slightly different to the album's version)
• Aram's version (cover)
• Matthew Ryan's version (cover)

Liner notes from the Light Of Day: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen tribute booklet:

I recorded this song because it spoke to me. I had gone through a period when just as I felt I had nothing left to lose, I'd lose a little more. Life can sneak up on you, show just how fragile a scene, any scene is. The treatment for this song as it exists on "Darkness..." always confounded me. Until last summer, I never listened past the howls at the beginning. Besides, in my mind, nothing could live up to the song "The River". Lat summer I grew up. I mean I really grew up. I was confronted by real trouble and challenge. Pride and dignity were on the block. Financial stability was in total disarray. I was a romantic being gutted by the simple daunting size of my dreams. It was almost physical. "Something in the Night" swore me to secrecy. Comforted me. Inspired me. Springsteen seems to have always understood that your dreams are only what you make them. The world full of the disenchanted, the disengaged, the punch-drunk, and that quiet desperation that can come with adulthood. To embrace or settle for any of that would be defeat. But at the end of the day, I only wanted to sing. "so take her to the floor, for a moment when the world seems right". At the time, a moment like that would've done a world of good. In fact, it did.

-Matthew Ryan