Brassai– Lovers Under a Street Lamp
To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life.
– Pablo Neruda
Since Valentine’s Day falls tomorrow, I thought I would just focus on love today with one of Brassai’s photos of Parisian lovers in the the 1930’s, a line on the fire of love from the poet Pablo Neruda, and a song that kind of sums it all up, The Fever.
The song was written by Bruce Springsteen in 1973 and somehow never made it onto his early albums. It ended up being passed on to Southside Johnny and his band, the Asbury Jukes, by Steve Van Zandt who was managing them at the time.
Southside Johnny was a Jersey Shore blue-eyed soul belter and the song was perfect for his delivery. It became one the main tracks from the Jukes’ first album in 1976, I Don’t Want to Go Home. That album spent a lot of time on my turntable back then and this song is one that is feels like it is meant to be heard in the dark with only the faint glow of the stereo receiver setting the tone.
I would bet anything that Neruda and those Parisian lovers under that street lamp felt The Fever.
Redtree Times 