When Bruce Springsteen wrote the songs for The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle, he was still heavily under the influence of Bob Dylan.

I’ve always thought that “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” was heavily Dylan influenced.

It’s Springsteen’s answer to or version of Dylan’s “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window.”

Both songs find the singers asking a woman to leave their present circumstances and join them.

Dylan’s song is much darker and deeper, but both songs are great expressions of the freedom that rock ‘n’ roll promises.

Springsteen and the E Street Band’s performance took place at the Capital Centre, Landover, MD., November 24th 1980.

“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”:

Bob Dylan, “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window” (the song starts 3 minutes, 56 seconds into the clip):

Another version:

[In August of this year I’ll be publishing my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.

Or watch an arty video with audio of me reading from the novel here.

–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-