The chorus of “Blinded by the Light” is one of the most widely mistaken lyrics in musical history, and arguably the most ridiculous. In Bruce Springsteen’s miniature masterpiece, The Boss clearly sings, “Blinded by the light. Cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night.” A deuce is slang for a hot rod, so it rhymes, makes sense, and fits with the rest of the song. But then Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (Jesus, the ‘70s were stupid) covered/crapped-all-over “Blinded” and the trouble began.
Along with dozens of changes to the original (all of which made it worse*) Mann changed the “cut loose” part to “revved up,” and pronounced everything with some unidentifiable slur/accent, leading to the nearly universal misconception that the song’s chorus is “Blinded by the Light. Wrapped up like douche, another runner in the night.” Even though Mann really does seem to sing “douche,” it’s hard to believe so many people thought a hit song had that lyric.
Springsteen joked about the whole thing by saying the Manfred Mann made the song more popular by making it into a song about feminine hygiene products, and Mann said, “I don’t think Springsteen liked our ‘Blinded by the Light,’ ‘cos we sang ‘wrapped up like a douche’, and it wasn’t written like that and I screwed it up completely...Apparently Springsteen thought we’d done it deliberately, which we hadn’t, so if I ever saw him I’d avoid him and cringe away like a frightened little boy.” As you should, Manfred Mann.
Also of note: The Eagles of Death Metal version that really leans into “douche” as a joke.
*Manfred Mann’s “Blinded by the Light” is endlessly terrible—the interminable, wanky guitar solo, The haphazard replacement and changes to the lyrics, playing Chopsticks(!) as the keyboard solo—so of course Mann’s version was a massive hit, outselling the original by millions.
