I'm Goin' Down

E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons was among the musicians who performed on "I'm Goin' Down".[3]

In October 1980, Springsteen released his fifth album, The River.[4] 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.[5][6] In April 1982,[5] he began recording sessions at the Power Station studio in New York City with the E Street Band[7]—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.[8]

At first, Springsteen attempted full-band versions of Nebraska songs at these sessions, including "Atlantic City", "Nebraska", and "Mansion on the Hill".[9] However, he and his co-producers were unsatisfied with the group renditions of the demo songs.[9] To buy time to decide on a solution, by May the band had begun recording other material,[9] 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".[10][11] "I'm Goin' Down" was recorded on May 12.[12] Eventually, Springsteen decided to release the January demos as the Nebraska album,[13] which came out in September 1982,[14] such that "I'm Goin' Down" and other band tracks from May were temporarily shelved.[15]

In 1983, he did more songs with the E Street Band, but was considering instead recording his next album solo, like Nebraska.[11][16] 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.[11][17] 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",[18][19] which he used as the B-side of the "Dancing in the Dark" single.[19]

"I'm Goin' Down" features an energetic rhythm,[3][20] propelled by a heavy drumbeat by Weinberg,[20] and contains a saxophone solo by Clemons.[3] The music has a basic chord progression of A–E–F#m–D.[21] 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:[12][22] "[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?"[22] 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".[23] The lyrics later turn into a stream of gibberish syllables.[20]

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,[24] came out in August 1985.[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".[25][a 1] In the United States, "I'm Goin' Down" entered the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on September 7,[26] and peaked at No. 9 on October 26.[27] It was one of a record-tying seven top 10 singles to be released from Born in the U.S.A.[a 2] It also reached No. 13 in Sweden,[25] No. 23 in Canada,[28] No. 29 in Italy,[29] and No. 61 in Germany.[25] No music video was made for the song.[30] The track was additionally released on 12" Singles Collection in 1985,[31] and The Album Collection Vol. 1 1973–1984 in 2014.[32]

"I'm Goin' Down" has generally been well received by critics. Debbie Miller of Rolling Stone describes the song as "wonderfully exuberant" and "hilarious".[20] 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".[3] 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.[33] A 2014 Rolling Stone article ranks "I'm Goin' Down" as the 52nd best Bruce Springsteen song ever.[34] 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,[35] calling it "a fun but relatively minor" work.[36] 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.[37] In Uncut magazine's 2015 Ultimate Collector's Edition: Springsteen, "I'm Goin' Down" is rated four stars out of five.[38]

A fan in East Rutherford on May 21, 2009 requests "I'm Goin' Down". Springsteen performed the song at the concert.[39]

Springsteen has played "I'm Goin' Down" infrequently since the end of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour.[34] For Springsteen's tours since 2009, most of his set lists are available on his official website, Brucespringsteen.net.[40] 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,[39] 14 times out of 138 concerts on his Wrecking Ball World Tour in 2012–2013,[41][42] and three times out of 34 concerts on his High Hopes Tour in 2014[43]—for a total of 30 times out of 257 concerts. At some of these 30 shows, Springsteen played the entire Born in the U.S.A. album.[39][42][43]

Various musicians have covered "I'm Goin' Down". In 1998, Frank Black and the Catholics included a version on their "Dog Gone" single,[44] and in 2015 on The Complete Recordings.[45] In 2010, Free Energy performed the song live in Atlanta,[46] and released a version of the song as a single;[47] the same year, Vampire Weekend performed the song in Vancouver and Seattle,[48][49] as well as including a recording of the song on their iTunes Session;[50] their version also appeared on the TV soundtrack Girls, Vol. 2: All Adventurous Women Do... in 2014.[51] In 2019 they released a Spotify Singles version recorded at Electric Lady Studios.[52] Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong put out a cover in 2012 as part of his Tim Timebomb and Friends collection,[53] and included it on his album Special Lunacy.[54] Dessa released a version on her 2013 album Parts of Speech,[55][56] and the following year, Trampled by Turtles did likewise on Dead Man's Town: A Tribute to Born in the U.S.A.[57][58]

• 7" Single[25]

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

• 12" Single[25]

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