The difference being that “McDonald’s Girl” was about a teenage boy’s crush on a teenage girl, whereas this song is apparently about fiftysomething guy’s creepy attraction to the hottest checkout clerk at Albertson’s.

But even if you have the opposite reaction and cringe, surely the line
“I turn back for a moment and catch a smile
That blows this whole fucking place apart”
more than redeems it?

What I think’s [b]really[/b] interesting about it is how completely, utterly at odds with the presentation of the supermarket in The Wrestler. Not saying it’s a bad thing, just curious that on the same album, Springsteen can both sympathize brilliantly with that movie’s protagonist and portray his soul-crushing working environment in such an idealized way.

That’s not what the gypsy told me.

I really like what you’ve written Mike. I appreciate and enjoy the way in which the songs works for you, and also the way in which Bruce expresses his intention for the song. Personally I took it a little more literally and without some of the iconic ramifications, but that’s just how it hit me at first, so as always: to each his own.

And in the end, Art should never require a defense. It is what it is and one’s appreciation of it within its own medium shouldn’t be influenced by the collective understanding of it. The idea of ‘attacking’ or ‘defending’ has always implied to me an attempt to influence the experience of the art, which is more insulting to the nature of artistic expression itself than the artist being discussed.