Bruce Springsteen - "For You" (Live at Hammersmith Odeon '75)

"I came for you, but you did not need my urgency"

Tenho uma teoria: acho que a minha vida pode ser contada através dos álbuns do Bruce Springsteen. Eliminando algumas incongruências e introduzindo algumas analepses e outras tantas prolepses, posso contar a minha história a partir do "Born To Run", quase cronologicamente. O mais engraçado é que os álbuns são biográficos, sim, mas naturalmente do próprio Bruce. Eles reflectem o seu estado de espírito na altura em que foram gravados e cada um desses álbuns entrou na minha vida em ordem cronológica no respectivo tempo em que eu passei esse mesmo estado de espírito ou condição de vida. Perdoem-me se tiverem que ler esta frase mais uma vez, mas é isto mesmo.

Várias vezes senti que o Bruce estava "ali" a tomar notas sobre a minha vida e a escrever sobre isso, em canções com 30 e 40 anos. Mesmo admitindo algum (ou muito!) pretensiosismo associado a esta teoria, às vezes eu próprio fico pasmado com a capacidade que Bruce tem em descrever minuciosamente os eventos da minha vida e pôr em palavras o meu estado de alma.

É enquadrado nessa teoria que hoje me lembrei de "For You", tema que faz parte do primeiro álbum de Bruce Springsteen (teria que ser introduzido na minha história como uma analepse na sua discografia, portanto), mas que só levantou voo quando Bruce se sentou ao piano e deu asas ao que lhe ia na alma. A versão que resultou do concerto no Hammersmith Odeon em Londres, 1975 — o primeiro concerto da E Street Band na Europa — é das materializações mais bonitas de um sentimento em música. Como só Bruce Springsteen sabe fazer.

Princess cards she sends me, with her regards
Her bar room eyes shine vacancy, to see her you have to look hard
I was wounded deep in battle, but I stood stuffed like a soldier undaunted
To her Cheshire smile I'd stand on file, she was all I ever wanted
But you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts
And honey, get your carpetbaggers off my back
You wouldn't even give me time to cover my tracks
You said, "Here boy, here's your mirror, your ball and your jacks"
But they ain't what I came for, and I'm sure you know that's true

Baby, I came for you, for you, I came for you; but you did not need my urgency
For you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
And the cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free

Oh, crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
Reveal yourself just once for me baby, while you've got the strength to speak
'Cause they're waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks
But I could give it all to you here, if only you would ask...
And don't call for your surgeon, even he says it's too late
It ain't your lungs this time, baby, it's your heart that holds your fate
Don't give me my money, honey, I don't want it back
You and your pony face and your union jack
You can take that local joker and teach him how to act
You know I was never that way even, even when I really cracked
And didn't you think I knew that you were born with the power of a locomotive
You could leap tall buildings in a single bound
And your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
You could laugh and could cry in a single sound

Your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
Remember how I kept you waiting when it was finally my turn to play the god?
And you were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
Remember how I poured salt on your tongue and hung just out of reach
And the band they played the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
And that ragged, ragged jagged melody, still clings to me like a leech
And you know that medal you wore on your chest, and how it always got in the way
You were like a little girl with a trophy, so soft to buy her way
We were both hitchhiking, but you had your ears tuned to the roar
Of some metal-tempered engine on an alien, distant shore
So you left to find a better reason than the one we were living for
And it ain't that nursery mouth that I came back for
And it ain't the way that you're stretched out on the floor
'Cause I've broken all your windows and rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores? 
You should know that's true

Baby, I came for you! But you did not need it...
For you, baby, I came for you, but your life was one long, long emergency
And your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free