Studio version
Baby's got on her new dress tonight
With her hair piled high she looks so right
And I will not be denied
All I wanted is to be the one to try
And now castaway, castaway, tonight all night
I'm walking deep beneath your lies
I call your name, no answer comes
While I am wondering what have I done
Can you leave me alone, all alone
And now baby knows I'll be there tonight
To rest in my last town for a while
We'll leave to exit the beginning of
What am I wondering, I don't know why
I want an answer tonight
Da da da da da da da da
Da da da da da da da da
Da da da da da da da da
Da da da da da da da da
THE BALLAD is a song written by Bruce Springsteen and recorded in studio during the Darkness On The Edge Of Town sessions. The above lyrics are transcribed from the only known studio version of THE BALLAD.
According to Sony's logs of Bruce Springsteen's studio sessions, THE BALLAD was recorded on 14 Oct 1977 at The Record Plant in New York City, NY.
This studio version of THE BALLAD can be found on the Castaway (Classics Limited) [track 01] and Darkness Outtakes 1978 Vol. 1: The Iceman (Scorpio) [track 13] bootlegs. The song is wrongly titled "Castaway" on the Castaway bootleg artwork.
As far as it's known, Bruce Springsteen has never performed THE BALLAD live.
As far as it's known, no artist has recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's THE BALLAD.
Thanks 6String for the lyrics help. Some of the lyrics were corrected based on the work done on the E Street Shuffle blog.
Some of the above info about the studio recording is taken from Brucebase.
This seems to be a very early work-in-progress take of THE BALLAD and some of the above lyrics were guessed and may be incorrect. If you have any corrections, additions, or comments, please contact me via the below form or by email: .
List of available versions of THE BALLAD on this website:
THE BALLAD [Studio version]
