Bruce Springsteen - Lost in the Flood Meaning

Tagged: No tags, suggest one.

Album cover for Lost in the Flood album cover

Lost in the Flood Lyrics

The ragamuffin gunner is returnin' home like a hungry runaway
He walks through town all alone--"He must be from the fort," he hears the high school girls say
His countryside's burnin' with wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide
The...

Write your interpretation

Notify me of new interps

anonymous
1

2

3

4

5

click a star to vote
May 25th 2014 !⃝
From Wikipedia:

The first verse is about "ragamuffin gunner" and has a recurring theme of religion, including references to the "hit-and-run" pleading for "sanctuary" and hiding beneath a "holy stone," while "breakin' beams and crosses with a spastic's reeling perfection" and "nuns run bald through Vatican halls, pregnant, pleading Immaculate Conception." Finally, "everybody's wrecked on Main Street from drinking unholy blood."

The second verse is about a "pure American brother", "Jimmy the Saint", perhaps the same person as the "ragamuffin gunner" from the first verse. This is the beginning of Springsteen's use of automobile themes (along with "The Angel"), as the pure American brother "races Sundays in Jersey in a Chevy stock Super Eight" and "leans on the hood telling racing stories." Eventually, Jimmy the Saint gets into some sort of accident (described as running "headfirst into a hurricane") and presumably dies since "there was nothing left but some blood where the body fell."

The third verse concerns a series of people on the streets of a city, presumably New York. They include "Eighth Avenue sailors in satin shirts," "some storefront incarnation of Maria," "Bronx's best apostle", "the cops," "the whiz-bang gang" and "some kid" who gets shot in the ensuing gun fight and holds "his leg, screaming something in Spanish."

More Bruce Springsteen songs »

Submit Your Interpretation

Bruce Springsteen Songs

Just Posted

So Serious	anonymous
Just Imagine It	anonymous
You're Gonna Go Far Kid	anonymous
Soon	anonymous
Bad Medicine	anonymous
If I'd Been the One	anonymous
Ma-Ma-Ma Belle	anonymous
Lettin' The Night Roll	anonymous
Waste	anonymous
Pumped Up Kicks	anonymous
Deuces are Wild	anonymous
Walk of Life	anonymous
Hymn for the Missing	anonymous
The Power of Love	anonymous
Ride	RosieFaith