Zero And Blind Terry

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Disc 1 track 8 of Tracks, 1998.

Tracks (1998)
- Bruce Springsteen: vocals, guitar
- Clarence Clemons: saxophone, percussion, backing vocals
- Danny Federici: organ, glockenspiel
- Suki Lahav: backing vocals
- Vini Lopez: drums, backing vocals
- David Sancious: piano
- Garry Tallent: bass

PHANTOMS aka WILD ZERO AND BLIND TERRY - V1 backing track #1	6:04	BIS / ROOI / ATMF
PHANTOMS - V2 backing track #2	5:44	US5 / ROOI / SA914
PHANTOMS - V3	5:37	uncirculating
ZERO AND BLIND TERRY - V4	5:53	SA914 / EY / BTF / PS / FOTF
PHANTOMS - V5	5:37	DDITV / MT1 / ROOI / SA914
ZERO AND BLIND TERRY - V6	5:54	TRACKS

Note: "Phantoms", also known by the titles "Over The Hills Of St. George" and "Over The Hills Of St. Croix", was written during early 1973, and apparently performed live several times during May and June, notably including the sole recorded performance on June 13 at Binghampton, NY. Sony logs during The Wild, The Innocent sessions show "Phantoms" was worked on June 22 and 26: this produced V1, the backing track of both final studio tracks of "Phantoms" and "Zero And Blind Terry" (also dubbed "Wild Zero And Blind Terry" out in bootleg world later on). V2, an alternate and unreleased instrumental take, was also recorded on one or both of these dates. Up until June 28, these takes were referred to as "Phantoms"; at that session, vocal tracks and instrumentation were added to V1 for both "Phantoms" V3, and "Zero and Blind Terry" V4, completing each. But on July 1, 1973, Bruce added additional dubs to Phantoms V3, making V5 the final take. The date of the circulating version is either June 28 or July 1. "Zero and Blind Terry" was first played live on July 18, 1973 at Max's Kansas City, New York, NY. Sony studio logs only mention "Zero" on June 28 and August 7, 1973. V1, the unreleased backing track sometimes called "Wild Zero" by bootleggers, but never called "Phantoms", except in the Official Sony logs we rely on. Along with V2, a shorter, alternate backing track that was not used, it is reasonable to assume one or both were recorded June 22 and June 26, 1973, any number of times, under the name "Phantoms" only. The first take logged of "Zero and Blind Terry" did not occur until June 28, the rock on which these statements are made. Then the studio logs list one or more takes of both of our titles on June 28, 1973, which we designate as the never heard V3 (Phantoms), and the standard version of "Zero" V4. It was pressed to acetate, used as the publishing demo, but not included on album #2. It has circulated on various boots for many years, much loved by collectors and hardcore fans. According to the Tracks session data, V6, the version on the 1998 collection, comes from the June 28 session. The logs show the June 28 version was referenced on November 5, 1997, but we could not identify the source and dates of the overdubs applied to the version on Tracks. Sancious's piano was certainly not recorded on June 28, nor were the backing vocals by Suki Lahav. The June 28 basic track was sent out as a publishing demo, in an early mix from June 28 or earlier. An overdubbed flute that had been removed by June 28 was still there. Most, and possibly all of the overdubs described here were done by and included in the August 7 session, mixed and stored away with the invisible title of V6, never circulating until being released on Tracks. Suki Lahav is also credited in the Tracks booklet. Statements referring to "Phantoms" as an early or work-in-progress version of "Zero And Blind Terry" are incorrect. These are two different songs, with no overlapping lyrics.

^{Studio Sessions: The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle}

Zero And Blind Terry

The Skulls met the Pythons down at the First Street station
Alliances have been made in alleyways all across the nation
These boys live off the milk of a silver jet and the love of sweet young women
And the Pythons are down from old Englishtown and they're looking to do some living
Well the leader of the Pythons is a kid they just call Zero
Now Terry's pop says, "These kids are some kind of monsters"
But Terry says, "No pop they're just plain heroes"

Zero and Terry they found the love that burns like wildfire
Now Terry's daddy understood that this Zero was no good, a child, a thief and a liar
Well from out of the darkness that breaks the dawn Zero rode like twilight
He said, "Tonight's the night, blind Terry, come on, Terry come on, tonight is the night
Pack your bags baby"

And together they ran like reindeers through the street
Well like tomorrow the earth was gonna catch up on fire
Now Terry's dad hired some troopers to kill Zero and bring Terry back home
They crawled up in the night like firelight

Now snow-white troopers from the council of crime rode silver foxes through Terry's field
Oh they met the Pythons down on Route 9 but they refused to yield
Yeah now the Pythons fought with buzz guns and the troopers with swords like light
And Zero and Terry they ran away as the gang fought all through the night

Well now some folks say Zero and Terry got away, others said they were caught and brought back
But still them young pilgrims to this day go to that spot way down by the railroad track
Where the troopers met the Pythons, old timers cry on a hot August night
If you look hard enough, if you try, you'll catch Zero and Terry and all the Pythons oh just hiking the streets up in the sky
Oh just walking, just hiking the streets up in the sky
Just hiking the streets up in the sky
Hiking ??? the streets in the sky
Just hiking the streets in the sky
Oh just hiking the streets
Hey Zero

^{Visit SpringsteenLyrics.com for other versions of this song.}

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Zero And Blind Terry