1976 Manfred Mann's Earth Band released it's seventh album The Roaring Silence. Featuring the #1 hit Blinded by the Light. The song was written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen in 1973.
According to Springsteen, he wrote the song by going through a rhyming dictionary in search of appropriate words. The first line of the song, "Madman drummers, bummers, and Indians in the summers with a teenage diplomat" is autobiographical—"Madman drummers" is a reference to drummer Vini Lopez, known as "Mad Man" (later changed to "Mad Dog"); "Indians in the summer" refers to the name of Springsteen's old Little League team; "teenage diplomat" refers to himself. "As the adolescent pumps his way into his hat" recalls his aunt Dora Kirby claiming "Bruce never took his baseball hat off." A "merry-go-round" is baseball slang for when a pitcher keeps walking batters. The remainder of the song tells of many unrelated events, with the refrain of "Blinded by the light, cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night". (despite what many heard.)
Springsteen has joked about confusion over the lyrics, claiming that it was not until Manfred Mann rewrote the song to be about a feminine hygiene product that it became popular.
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