Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) is the sixth song on
The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle, the second album released by
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. It is a story of forbidden love between the singer and Rosalita, who apparently lives with her parents and needs encouragement to "come out tonight," as this is the crux of the song. The singers wants to spend the night out on the town, and convince Rosalita to "cut loose her mama's reign." The singer suggests picking up "Little
Dynamite" and "Little
Gun." Both Dynamite and Gun quickly separate, to play with the
bats in the
belfry[?] and try "out his attitude on all the
cats," respectively Meanwhile, Rosalita's parents wait up for her and she is presumably worried about their reaction. The singer entices by mentioning the presence of "Jack the
Rabbit" and "Weak
Knees Willie," along with "Sloppy Sue" and "Big
Bones Billy" and promising that they will "play some
pool" and "skip some
school." The singer explains that he understands why her parents don't like him (because he plays "in a
rock n' roll band"), and claims that her father locked her in her room. The singers advises that Rosalita tell her father (who is worried that he doesn't have any money) that the "
record company just gave (the singer) a big advance." On his way to pick Rosie up, however, the singer's "
tires were slashed" and he "almost crashed." His
car is "stuck in the
mud[?] somewhere in the
swamps of
Jersey." He begs that Rosie stay up for him and that, when they meet in the "morning light," he will hold her in his arms and take her to a cafe in southern
California where "they play
guitars all night and all day."
"Spread out now Rosie doctor come cut loose her mama's reign"
lyrics (http://www.xs4all.nl/~maroen/engels/lyrics/rosalits.htm)
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