![Bruce Springsteen Reflects on His Most Personal Hit Song]](https://backingtracksfullcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Bruce-Springsteen-Reflects-on-His-Most-Personal-Hit-Song-758x431.jpg "The Story Behind Manfred Mann's \"Blinded by the Light\"] 1")
Chris Thompson was the new guitarist and vocalist with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 1976. And his first single with the group couldn’t have been bigger: “Blinded by the Light,” a cover of a deep cut from Bruce Springsteen’s 1973 album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.
“I could have died and been happy then,” Thompson says, recalling the single’s chart-topping success in the United States.
Thompson was born in England and raised in New Zealand, where he began working as a musician. He returned to the U.K. in 1973, yearning for success, and in one fell swoop, he found it. “Having a number one in America and being hugely successful is all I ever really hoped I’d be able to do,” he says.
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Manfred Mann’s Earth Band was an unlikely group to have a radio hit. The English act was founded by keyboardist Mann, who’d had success with his self-named pop group in the 1960s and their 1968 cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mighty Quinn,” a number-one hit in the U.K. and a number 10 in the U.S.
By the early 1970s, Mann had abandoned pop and founded the Earth Band, which was known for its prog-rock leanings. But Mann clearly had a desire to create more radio-friendly fare.
According to Thompson — who joined the group when guitarist Mick Rogers departed in 1975 — Mann had a list of songs that included a few Springsteen cuts. “Blinded by the Light” was the first they worked on in the studio, but not before putting it through its paces on the road.
As it happens, its success was far from guaranteed.
“We played ‘Blinded by the Light’ all the time at gigs to try and figure out what worked and what didn’t,” he says. “Funnily enough, it didn’t work at all. Audiences just didn’t like it. We’d play the song, and people would disappear. It was a toilet break song.”
But Mann and Thompson were certain “Blinded by the Light” had untapped potential. “It was very different,” Thompson admits. “But it was basically our shot at having a pop hit, or to become a crossover rock and pop band.”
Although Thompson says audience response to the song left the band without “much confidence” in it, Mann was “relentless.”
“We just went for it until it was on the record.”
“We played ‘Blinded by the Light’ all the time at gigs to try and figure out what worked and what didn’t. Funnily enough, it didn’t work at all. Audiences just didn’t like it.”
— Chris Thompson
They succeeded. “Blinded by the Light” might have been a dud for Bruce Springsteen, but it paid off for Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, who released it as the lead single from their 1976 album, The Roaring Silence.
It was all good — except for that “little issue” with the song’s lyrics. Shockingly, Springsteen’s phrase “cut loose like a deuce” was replaced by what sounds suspiciously like, in Mann’s version, “wrapped up like a douche,” although Thompson contends he sang “deuce.”
It didn’t hurt the song’s airplay or sales, and may have even helped by giving it a boost of notoriety. In the end, the record gave Chris Thompson what he coveted most: enduring success in America as a professional musician.
“I worked so hard as a boy to learn to play guitar and how to play and sing together,” Thompson says. “It was the culmination of all the work I’d put in, and it pretty much means everything to me.”
Why did the band want to record “Blinded by the Light?”
Manfred was sent the Greetings From Asbury Park album by a DJ named Ed Sciaky from Philadelphia. Manfred went through that and actually found three songs that he wanted to do, and when I joined the band he already had “Blinded by the Light” on his list.
That was one of the first songs that I played with him. In fact, I don’t think I’d be wrong to say that doing that song was the reason that Mick Rogers left the band. He didn’t want to do that song. But Manfred believed in it. He was right, of course.
What was the process of arranging the Earth Band’s version, which is much different from Springsteen’s?
It started with Manfred and I on piano, just kind of going through it and talking about the ideas that we might have. And then, like everything from the Earth Band, it was a long process of weeks and weeks playing, just working on how the arrangement could go. We had quite a few different ideas, and when we got to the point where we thought, “Okay, this is it,” we went into the recording studio, and Manfred didn’t like anything anymore. [laughs]
So how did you come to the version that we hear on The Roaring Silence?
We had to kind of change it. Actually, the engineer found Manfred doodling around while we were recording and came up with the actual introduction of the song, you know, that electric piano introduction. It came from the jams we were having, but before that, we had cellos going, and everybody felt it was kind of boring. Like everything with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, it developed over a very long time.
“I don’t think I’d be wrong to say that doing that song was the reason Mick Rogers left the band. He didn’t want to do it. But Manfred believed in it. He was right, of course.”
— Chris Thompson
What guitars, amps and pedals were you using then?
I was playing a new [Gibson] Les Paul from 1975, which is now an old Les Paul. [laughs] It was the first-ever Les Paul that I had. I never had enough money to buy a Les Paul before that. Before that, I was playing cheap Hofners and stuff like that. It was pretty fantastic for me to be able to play a Les Paul like that.
With the Les Paul, I had a chorus pedal and one of those round Fuzz Face pedals. I had that, a 50-watt Marshall amplifier and a 4×12 speaker cabinet. That’s what I used all the time with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. I’ve still got it right behind me. I’m looking at that amplifier right now.
The credits say Dave Flett played lead. Is that accurate, or did you play some lead on the track too?
I was playing what I call the “chorus guitar.” Dave played all the in-between licks — you know, all those little things, and the solo.
Was Dave’s rig much different from yours?
Dave used a [Gibson] Flying V. With that, he used a 100-watt Marshall and lots more pedals than I had. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what his pedals were, but he used a lot. But he also used a lot of straight sounds because he liked the sound of the Flying V, which, as you know, is totally different from the Les Paul.
You handled the lead vocals on “Blinded by the Light,” except for the final verse, which was done by Manfred. How did that shake out?
Well, Manfred… actually, yeah… he does do the last verse. [laughs] You’re right! But he actually wanted Bruce to do it. Manfred got a number for Bruce when he was on the road and gave him a call, asking if he would like to sing on it. I think he woke him up!
Anyway, he turned down the opportunity, and we wanted another voice for that verse, so it’s Manfred singing on that.
Infamously, there was a lyrical snafu between “deuce” and “douche.” You said you were singing “deuce” but it came out sounding like “douche.” Did you try to fix that in the studio?
You know… it was all down to the second engineer, who had forgotten to line up a thing called an azimuth on the tape recorder. It had to be lined up every day on the old tape machines; it lines up how the tape moves across the 16 or 24 tracks on the recorder head. [An incorrectly set azimuth can cause distortion in tape recordings.] So he forgot to line it up on the day I was doing the vocal, and so when we did the mix, “deuce” came out sounding like “douche.”
The Americans picked up on it. Manfred and I were sent by Warner Brothers to go to 50 radio stations in about three weeks and explain that it wasn’t “douche.” [laughs] We explained that it was actually “deuce” and that it was a physical problem with the recording.
I think the song got played so much because of that. People didn’t know what the lyric was. They’d say, “Play that ‘douche’ song!” [laughs] But the more it was played, the more it became a standard on the radio. I think it was a good thing.
Did you ever get the chance to meet Bruce in person and talk with him about “Blinded by the Light?”
Yes, I did! I think it was in about 1979, and we were playing in Zurich, and he was playing there, too. We played two nights, and he was playing the night after us. The promoter asked if we wanted to go to dinner with Bruce because we had a day off in between or whatever.
I said, “Absolutely.” So I went out to dinner with him and Steven Van Zandt. Manfred didn’t come. He was probably embarrassed about waking Bruce up to ask him if he would sing on the song! [laughs]
How did Bruce feel about the Earth Band’s version of the song?
We went out to a fondue restaurant. I sat next to Bruce, and we talked generally about what we liked and didn’t like about America. Really, it was funny because we were both fans of Denny’s restaurants. So we started talking about that, and then he told stories, pretty much like he does when he’s onstage.
And then, I said to him, “Bruce, what did you think about ‘Blinded by the Light?’” He took a little while to reply, and he said, “What’s the other band that you’re playing in at the moment?” By this time I’d begun playing with a band called Night and we had a hit with our song “Hot Summer Nights.”
So I said, “Oh, you mean Night?” He said, “Yeah…” He said, “What’s that song you do with ‘Night’ in the title?” I said, “Oh, it’s called ‘Hot Summer Nights.’”
He said, “I like that song.” [laughs]
So he didn’t like our version of “Blinded by the Light.” I’ve since found out that he hated it. Yeah, he really disliked it.
“The original words were ‘cut loose like a deuce’ — and I didn’t really want to sing that. I don’t know why.”
— Chris Thompson
Do you know why?
He was upset that it had “douche” in it — and that we’d actually changed some of the words. Because “wrapped up like a deuce” were not the original words. They were “cut loose like a deuce” — and I didn’t really want to sing that. I don’t know why.
I saw Bruce again a couple of years ago. He was playing close to where I live in Belgium, so we got together and had a chat. But I couldn’t get him to talk about it. He was very happy to take some photos with me, but I couldn’t get him to talk about it.
Looking back, what does “Blinded by the Light” mean to you?
All I ever wanted to do was be successful in the music business. I went to England and found it very difficult to get a job. And then I got a job with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, and the first song I recorded with them basically went to number one in America! It was such a fantastic thing for me.
