Badlands

"Badlands" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released as the second single from his fourth studio album Darkness on the Edge of Town in July 1978. Origins According to Springsteen, he came up with the title "Badlands" before he started writing the song. He felt it was a "great title" but that it would be easy to blow it by not writing a worthy song for it. The riff is based on the Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". According to the editors of Rolling Stone, the song "tapped into the ferocity of the punk singles he'd been listening to at the time". Themes The song tells the story of a man down on his luck and angry at the world, who wants a better lot in life.