Arcade Fire - Keep the car running

First performance: 14/10/2007

Coverinfo

Bruce performed the song only once:
 
2007-10-14 - SCOTIABANK PLACE, OTTAWA, ON
 
"Keep The Car Running" was performed during the Magic tour with guests Win Butler and Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire in Ottawa 2007.
 
 
 
Also "State Trooper" was performed that night with guests Win Butler and Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire. 
 

Songinfo

"Keep the Car Running" is a song by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. It is the second single released from the band's second album, Neon Bible in the UK.The single was released on 19 March 2007, on 7" vinyl with the B-side, "Broken Window". The lyrics of the song describe a man living in an Orwellian society. The man is afraid of death, but as the song progresses it becomes clear that he is afraid not of death, but of being forgotten ('the same place animals go when they die') He sings about keeping the car running, which is to say keep on remembering a time before a dictatorship. 
 
 
 

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

intro to the song :
 
"Thank you, thank you , we have a special guest tonight…Win and Régine from Arcade Fire …alright, this was, this was a request so we’ll see how we’ll do "
 
Bruce Springsteen to Steve Kandell, Spin, December 2007
 
 "Robert De Niro said once that what he likes about acting is that he gets to step into other people’s shoes without the real-life consequences. Art does allow you to do that, to go right up to the abyss and look in, hopefully without falling in. On any given day. I feel like that’s what Arcade Fire was built to hold off, that falling in. There’s a furious aspect to the performance, and that’s why people come out — you’re recognizing the realities of people’s emotional lives and their difficulties, you’re presenting these problems, and you’re bringing a survival kit. The bands that do that forge intense, intense relationships with their audience, and to me, that was always the core of the best rock’n’roll." 
 

Lyrics

Every night my dream's the same
Same old city with a different name
Men are coming to take me away
I don't know why, but I know I can't stay

There's a weight that's pressing down
Late at night you can hear the sound
Even the noise you make when you sleep
Can't swim across a river so deep
They know my name cause I told it to them
But they don't know where and they don't know
When it's coming, when it's coming

There's a fear I keep so deep
Knew its name since before I could speak
Aaaaah Aaaaah Aaaaah Aaaaah
They know my name cause I told it to them
But they don't know where and they don't know
When its coming, oh when but its coming

Keep the car running

If some night I don't come home
Please don't think I've left you alone
The same place animals go when they die
You can't climb across a mountain so high
The same city where I go when I sleep
You can't swim across a river so deep
They know my name cause I told it to them
But they don't know where
And they don't know
When it's coming, oh when is it coming?

Keep the car running
Keep the car running
Keep the car running