Man at the Top

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Man at the Top" is a Bruce Springsteen song written in 1983 at the time of the Born in the U.S.A. recording sessions, and performed by him very occasionally during the 1984 and 1985 North American legs of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. Sung at the high-visibility Washington, D.C. concert at RFK Stadium during the height of "Bossmania" in the latter year, it gained notice from both Time magazine and Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh for its possibly auto-politico-biographical import:

Man at the top says it's lonely up there

If it is, man, I don't care

From the big white house to the parking lot

Everybody wants to be the man at the top

The song was never again performed by Springsteen, and went unreleased until it turned up on his 1998 Tracks box set. Meanwhile and since, "Man at the Top" was kept alive by E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren, who renders it in his solo concerts and has described it as his favorite Springsteen song.