I'm Goin' Down

E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons was among the musicians who performed on "I'm Goin' Down".[2]

In October 1980, Springsteen released his fifth album, The River.[3] For his next album, which would become Nebraska, he initially recorded a demo cassette by himself of over a dozen songs on January 3, 1982.[4][5] In April 1982,[4] he began recording sessions at the Power Station studio in New York City with the E Street Band[6]—whose line-up then consisted of Roy Bittan, Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, Garry Tallent, Steve Van Zandt, and Max Weinberg—with production by Springsteen, Van Zandt, Jon Landau, and Chuck Plotkin.[7]

At first, Springsteen attempted full-band versions of Nebraska songs at these sessions, including "Atlantic City", "Nebraska", and "Mansion on the Hill".[8] However, he and his co-producers were unsatisfied with the group renditions of the demo songs.[8] To buy time to decide on a solution, by May the band had begun recording other material,[8] including "I'm Goin' Down", "Born in the U.S.A.", "Glory Days", "Downbound Train", "Darlington County", "Working on the Highway", and "I'm on Fire".[9][10] "I'm Goin' Down" was recorded on May 12.[11] Eventually, Springsteen decided to release the January demos as the Nebraska album,[12] which came out in September 1982,[13] such that "I'm Goin' Down" and other band tracks from May were temporarily shelved.[14]

In 1983, he did more songs with the E Street Band, but was considering instead recording his next album solo, like Nebraska.[10][15] By the following year, Landau and Plotkin had convinced Springsteen to release band tracks, including several from May 1982 and a number of subsequently recorded songs.[10][16] At one point, Springsteen was not going to include "I'm Goin' Down" on Born in The U.S.A., but later added it in place of "Pink Cadillac",[17][18] which he used as the B-side of the "Dancing in the Dark" single.[18]

"I'm Goin' Down" features an energetic rhythm,[2][19] propelled by a heavy drumbeat by Weinberg,[19] and contains a saxophone solo by Clemons.[2] The music has a basic chord progression of A–E–F#m–D.[20] In concerts in 1984, Springsteen introduced the song by describing the diminishing intimacy and sexual activity that can occur over the course of a romantic relationship:[11][21] "[First] you're making love to 'em all the time, three or four times a day. Then you come back a little bit later, and, uh-oh ... it's like 'Are you gonna make love to me tonight, or are we gonna wait for the full moon again', y'know?"[21] The song's lyrics include lines such as "I'm sick and tired of you setting me up / Setting me up just to knock-a knock-a knock-a me down" and "You used to love to drive me wild / But lately girl you get your kicks from just driving me down".[22] The lyrics later turn into a stream of gibberish syllables.[19]

The Born in the U.S.A. album was released on June 4, 1984,[1] and "I'm Goin' Down", the album's sixth single,[23] was released on August 27, 1985.[24][25] The 7" single version includes B-side "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" while the 12" Maxi has this and "Held Up Without a Gun".[26][n 1] In the United States, "I'm Goin' Down" entered the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on September 7,[28] and peaked at No. 9 on October 26.[29] It was one of a record-tying seven top 10 singles to be released from Born in the U.S.A.[n 2] It also reached No. 13 in Sweden,[26] No. 23 in Canada,[31] No. 29 in Italy,[32] and No. 61 in Germany.[26] No music video was made for the song.[33] The track was additionally released on 12" Singles Collection in 1985,[34] and The Album Collection Vol. 1 1973–1984 in 2014.[35] Writer Greg Kot has noted that despite the single's chart success, the song was not included on Springsteen's 1995 Greatest Hits compilation.[36]

"I'm Goin' Down" has generally been well received by critics. Debbie Miller of Rolling Stone describes the song as "wonderfully exuberant" and "hilarious".[19] For Billboard's Caryn Rose, it is "a prime exemplar of the kind of good-time party song that Springsteen and E Street do best, sliding easily through the verses with a ... bouncing rhythm ... and a fun, jumping end".[2] Writer Chuck Klosterman, who is not a fan of Born in the U.S.A., nonetheless rates "I'm Goin' Down" as one of two decent tracks on the album.[37] A 2014 Rolling Stone article ranks "I'm Goin' Down" as the 52nd best Bruce Springsteen song ever.[38] In the book Counting Down Bruce Springsteen: His 100 Finest Songs, writer Jim Beviglia puts "I'm Goin' Down" as the 131st best Springsteen track,[39] calling it "a fun but relatively minor" work.[40] Critic Bruce Pollock lists it and several other Born in the U.S.A. tracks in Rock Song Index: The 7500 Most Important Songs for the Rock and Roll Era.[41] In Uncut magazine's 2015 Ultimate Collector's Edition: Springsteen, "I'm Goin' Down" is rated four stars out of five.[42]

Springsteen sometimes takes song requests by collecting signs from the audience, as he did for "I'm Goin' Down" at the May 21, 2009 concert in East Rutherford, New Jersey shown here.[43][44] The singer did the same at an August 2, 2008 show in Foxborough, Massachusetts—where he introduced "I'm Goin' Down" as "rarely played and even more rarely requested"[45][46]—and on February 27, 2016 in Rochester, New York.[47]

Springsteen has played "I'm Goin' Down" infrequently since the end of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour.[38] For Springsteen's tours since 2009, many of his set lists are available on his official website, Brucespringsteen.net.[48] Of the concert dates whose set lists the website has published, Springsteen performed "I'm Goin' Down" 13 times out of 85 concerts on his Working on a Dream Tour in 2009,[49] 14 times out of 138 concerts on his Wrecking Ball World Tour in 2012–2013,[50][51] three times out of 34 concerts on his High Hopes Tour in 2014,[52] and 12 times out of 86 concerts for the River Tour in 2016–2017[53][54]—for a total of 42 times out of 343 concerts. At some of these 42 shows, Springsteen played the entire Born in the U.S.A. album.[49][51][52]

Various musicians have covered "I'm Goin' Down". In 1998, Frank Black and the Catholics—whose bandleader has expressed his admiration for the "brilliant ... structure" of Springsteen's recording[55]—included a version on their "Dog Gone" single,[56] and in 2015 on The Complete Recordings.[57] In 2010, Free Energy performed the song live in Atlanta,[58] and released a version of the song as a single;[59] the same year, Vampire Weekend performed the song in Vancouver and Seattle,[60][61] as well as including a recording of the song on their iTunes Session;[62] their version also appeared on the TV soundtrack Girls, Vol. 2: All Adventurous Women Do... in 2014.[63] In 2019, they released a Spotify Singles version recorded at Electric Lady Studios.[64] Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong put out a cover in 2012 as part of his Tim Timebomb and Friends collection,[65] and included it on his album Special Lunacy.[66] Dessa released a version on her 2013 album Parts of Speech,[67][68] and the following year, Trampled by Turtles did likewise on Dead Man's Town: A Tribute to Born in the U.S.A.[69][70]

• 7" Single[26]

1. "I'm Goin' Down" – 3:29
2. "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" – 3:23

• 12" Single[26]

1. "I'm Goin' Down" – 3:29
2. "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" – 3:23
3. "Held Up Without a Gun" – 1:15