Sometimes a cover can be more successful than the original. This is certainly the case here as the original (apparently very different) song was written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen was originally touted as the new Dylan and so the move makes sense from a band that had recorded Dylan's Mighty Quinn. The song was written because an executive at Columbia thought Springsteen's Greetings from Asbury Park NJ lacked a potential single. According to Springsteen, the song came about from going through a rhyming dictionary looking for rhymes. The first line "Madman drummers, bummers, and Indians in the summers with a teenage diplomat" is autobiographical as drummer Vini Lopez was known as "Mad Man" (later "Mad Dog") and "Indians in the summer" refers to Springsteen's old Little League team; "teenage diplomat" refers to himself. The remainder of the song tells of many unrelated events, with the refrain of "Blinded by the light, cut loose (or revved up in the Manfred Mann version) like a deuce, another runner in the night".
As ever in rock it is the sound of the words that matters rather than the meaning. Having said that, the lyrics in the Manfred Mann version are different to those in the Springsteen one. They have been basically edited down from the original. Singer Chris Thompson also manages to make the word deuce sound like douche! Calliope was one of the muses. The word is also used for a musical instrument. What gives this version its power is the arrangement with synthesisers, guitars and a nice double tracked and contrasting vocal near the end. The album version reveals the use of chopsticks as the basic keyboard rhythm throughout.
