Jungleland

Infobox Single
Name = Jungleland
Artist = Bruce Springsteen
from Album = Born to Run
Released = August 25, 1975
Format = 7"
Recorded = 1975
Genre = Rock
Length = 9:33
Label = CBS Records
Producer = Bruce Springsteen and Jon Landau

"Jungleland" is an almost ten-minute long, epic closing song on Bruce Springsteen's classic 1975 album "Born to Run", and tells a tale of the love between the "Rat" and the "Barefoot Girl" amid the backdrop of gang violence. It contains E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons' most recognizable solo. It also features short-time E Streeter Suki Lahav, who performs the delicate 23-note violin introduction to the song, accompanied by Roy Bittan on piano in the foreboding opening.

The song in its lyrics mirrors the pattern of the entire Born to Run album, beginning with a sense of desperate hope that slides slowly into despair and defeat. The song opens with the "Rat" "driving his sleek machine/over the Jersey state line" and meeting up with the "Barefoot Girl," with whom he "takes a stab at romance and disappears down Flamingo Lane." The song then begins to portray some of the scenes of the city and gang life in which the "Rat" is involved, with occasional references to the gang's conflict with the police. The last two stanzas, coming after Clemons' extended solo, describe the final fall of the "Rat" and the death of both his dreams, which "gun him down" in the "tunnels uptown," and the love between him and the "Barefoot Girl." The song ends with a description of the apathy towards the semi-tragic fall of the "Rat" and the lack of impact his death had- "Nobody watches as the ambulance pulls away/Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light," "Man the poets down here don't write nothin' at all/They just stand back and let it all be."

The two sides of the Born to Run album are meant to mirror one another, and so the song is similar in tone and theme to "Backstreets," the final track on Side 1. Backstreets, though it does end on a pessimistic note, does not close with as emphatic and final a statement of hopelessness, and leaves open a small possibility for something better. Jungleland's ending, with the "Rat's" own dream killing him, is meant to be the final end of the desperate optimism and dreams articulated from the very beginning of the album.

"Jungleland" is considered one of Springsteen's best all-time songs, and appears accordingly on such lists.

In concert, "Jungleland" is usually played towards the end of shows. During the E Street Band's reunion tour in 1999 and 2000, it was part of a revolving "epic" slot, alternating with "Backstreets" and "Racing in the Street". When played, it is sometimes preceded by its "Born to Run" predecessor, "Meeting Across the River". However, since the beginning of The Rising Tour, "Jungleland" has become rarer in concert. This may be due to the length of the song, or because of Clemons' health becoming a factor. During the "Magic" 2007-2008 tour, Jungleland was played periodically, often played every third or fourth show in a slot where it alternated with "Backstreets," "Rosalita," "Kitty's Back," or "Detroit Medley." Towards the end of the tour, it was played with more frequency- during the final U.S. leg, the song was played about every other show.