Bear with me, please–I’m going to take some license .

I usually feel like I’m on pretty solid ground in my analyses of Bruce’s work, but I readily acknowledge I’m stepping out on a limb when it comes to “None But the Brave.”

What makes this song so intriguing and challenging to interpret is that there are two versions out there: the first, an outtake from the Born in the U.S.A. sessions, recorded in 1982 but never released. The second version was released on The Essential Bruce Springsteen in 2003.

Lyrically, the two versions differ only by a single line that’s buried so deep in the song, a casual listener might not even notice. (Not that a casual listener would stumble across an unreleased outtake, but like I said, bear with me.) And the instrumental tracks are the same, at least to my ears.

But the substitution of that one key line (I’ll point it out later in this essay)–combined with what I am convinced is a contemporary vocal (although I can find no record, citation, or document of that) filled with the life experience and keen social empathy of Rising-era Bruce –make the two versions sound like completely different songs to my ears, with very different meanings.

Perhaps I’m reaching. But let me explain before you decide for yourself.

Let’s start with the unreleased outtake.

So let’s just lay this out first and foremost: whichever version we’re listening to, “None But the Brave” is magnificent. It’s heartfelt and heartbreaking, and it captures the E Street Band sound at perhaps its most quintessential. Why in the world Bruce chose to leave it off of Born in the U.S.A. is beyond me. Perhaps he felt the central conceit of the song–the left-behind friend/lover singing to his gone-to-greener-pastures girl–was essentially the same one used for “Bobby Jean” on that album, but in my opinion “None But the Brave” is the superior song.

Its first verse and chorus establish the scene  and the situation with Bruce’s by-now  trademark verbal economy:

Tonight down on Union Street
I’m thinkin’ back baby to you and me
The way you used to be
And your words come back to me
From passing cars, their voices sing out
In empty bars where guitars ring out
We’d walk in, talk about
Who’d be the lucky ones to get out

You said
None baby but the brave
No one baby but the brave
Those strong enough to save
Something from what they gave

This is a man rooted almost literally in his past, and haunted by it. Or maybe he’s the one doing the haunting: he drifts through town, as if invisible. He is background now, to the friends and lovers in the bars and their cars, but once he was in the foreground. Once it was his story–their story–and they shared the dreams of escape that all young adults share, but most never realize.

But his girl did–she escaped and left him behind. Because she was brave enough and strong enough to hold on to enough of her dreams and determination to escape the gravitational pull of her home, and more weightily, her circumstances.

In dreams these nights I see you my friend
The way you looked back then
Ah, on a night like this
I know that girl no longer exists

It’s interesting (and possibly significant) that Bruce addresses his love as “my friend,” creating  the momentary possibility  that perhaps this song is more universal than it first appeared–an ode to a close friend rather than a lover. That ambiguity is undoubtedly as deliberate here as it is in “Bobby Jean” or “Backstreets,” but subsequent verses make clear that if the two were friends, they were at least friends with benefits.

Whatever their relationship, the singer clearly hasn’t been able to move on. He hold on to his image of her as she was–even though he acknowledges that that particular girl no longer exists. In her new setting and new life, she is a different person and lost to him…

Except for a moment in some stranger’s eyes
Or the nameless girls in cars rushin’ by
That’s where I find you tonight
And in my heart you still survive

Again, he’s haunted: he knows she’s gone, but his image of her is so vivid that he can’t help but catch fleeting glimpses of her in passing strangers. He carries his torch in tribute, and we’re about to realize that he’s not going to move on any time soon.

Now tonight once more
I search every face on that crowded floor
Looking for, I don’t know what for
Something that ain’t there no more
There’s a girl standin’ by the band
She reminds me of you and I asked her to dance
As the drummer counts away
I take her hand, we move away

Oof–that verse packs an emotional wallop! At first evoking “My Love Will Not Let You Down,” (another contemporary outtake), the singer searches for connection in some new eyes, hoping to recapture the spark of what he had with his lost love. And then we visit “Reno” (a much later composition that paints a similar scene) as he hooks up with a girl just because she reminds him of his loss. His emotional pain is laid stark before us. (By the way, that bolded line is deliberate. We’ll come back to that later.)

Our protagonist is self-aware, at least. He knows he is defeated, and he pities his friends who are still caught up in the game, even though he knows they are destined to defeat as soon as life or love deals them a hand they’re not strong enough to play:

And tonight now I see old friends
Caught in a game they’ve got no chance to win
Gettin’ beat and then playin’ again
‘Till their strength gives out or their heart gives in

And finally, he rages:

Who’s the man who thinks he can decide
Whose dreams will live and whose shall be pushed aside
Has he ever walked down these streets at night
And looked into the eyes of
None baby but the brave

And in that final line, we understand the one thing he does not–that even though he considers himself one of the brave, robbed of the freedom and life of which he dreamt, the bravery that life demands isn’t the courage to dream but rather the strength, determination, and fortitude to make them real.

“None But the Brave” is at heart a tragic song. “Bobby Jean,” at least, features a hero at peace, even if his heart has a hole in it. The hero of “None But the Brave” is broken.

So: that’s the original version, recorded June 27, 1983.

Towards the end of the Rising Tour in 2003, Bruce announced a greatest hits compilation called The Essential Bruce Springsteen that would feature a “bonus disc” of outtakes and unreleased songs. On that disc was–finally, two decades after it was recorded–“None But the Brave.”

Or was it?

Like I wrote earlier, the released version is clearly not the same one that had been floating around bootlegger’s circles for years. Give a listen, and see for yourself:

Again, I’m pretty sure the instrumental track is the same–perhaps sped up just a touch, and certainly a more delicate mix (particularly after the bridge) but that’s all.

But I’m convinced that the vocal is new. Bruce’s voice clearly carries his age and a certain world-weariness that characterized the heavy subject matter of Rising-era recordings. And it just plain sounds like modern Bruce. But I have to note that I’ve seen no documentation of that, and Brucebase still cites the recording as hailing from the 1983 sessions.  So if someone definitively attests to both vocal and instrumental tracks as original 1983 documents, I’m gonna have to eat some serious crow. Especially with what comes next.

Go back and listen to the first two verses in each recording and compare them. To my ears, the second (modern) vocal carries more emotion and longing –it’s a far more convincing vocal performance. almost Orbisonian at times.

But what caught me short when I first listened–really listened–to the Essential version was the one line that Bruce altered. In the original version, he sang:

Now tonight once more
I search every face on that crowded floor
Looking for, I don’t know what for
Something that ain’t there no more

But on the 2003 version, he sings:

Now tonight once more
I search every face on that crowded floor
Looking for, I don’t know what for
Just waitin’ to see you come walkin’ through that door

Now that is a significant edit. In the earlier version, the singer is looking for a spark, a hint, the essence of a friendship, a love, a connection he once had but lost. He’s trying to recapture a feeling.

In the later version, he’s trying to summon a person. In fact, that line evokes a scene from “You’re Missing,” another song of aching loss which Bruce had written and recorded probably not that long before he recorded his new vocal for “None But the Brave.”

Your house is waiting for you to walk in.

Now, I don’t know whether that “You’re Missing” reference is deliberate, or whether the song–a staple throughout much of the Rising Tour–was simply on his subconscious mind.

But very little of what Bruce writes is accidental, and if you go back and listen–really listen –to “None But the Brave” through a 2003 lens instead of a 1983 lens, the song transforms.

It’s still about loss, but now the loss has more gravity, and the bravery is something else altogether.

In the newer “None But the Brave,” I hear through Bruce’s vocals, lyrics, and emotion the loss of not just a loved one, but a loved one lost on that horrific September day in 2001.

A girl who didn’t get out.

A girl who no longer exists.

A girl who was strong enough to save something from what she gave.

A girl whose house is waiting for her to walk in.

A girl who’s missing.

And a man… a man who’s defeat seems all the more understandable, and his rage and resentment at the man who decided whose dreams would live and whose would be pushed aside all the more justifiable.

A man whose bravery isn’t ironic in the least.

Is that the song Bruce wrote and recorded in 1983? Of course not. But I believe it’s the one he sang in 2003.  Bruce has shown us how songs can transform and transcend their original meanings–sometimes over long periods of time (“Brilliant Disguise“) and sometimes short ones (“My City of Ruins”).

I’ll add this one to that club. Either way, in either incarnation, it remains one of my favorite Springsteen songs.

“None But the Brave” made its live debut shortly after its album releases, at Bruce’s Asbury Park holiday shows in December 2003. Here’s the second-ever performance, from the December 7th show.

The first E Street Band performance was more than four years later, in Vancouver on the Magic tour, and I was lucky enough to be there for it. Bruce has played it a mere handful of times since (usually and comically checking with the band to make sure they know how to start it); here’s one of the more recent performances from Zurich in 2016:

But whether I was in the house or listening on CD or YouTube, in my opinion, none of Bruce’s live performances have measured up to that wonderful 1983/2003 recording. It’s part of a small subset of Bruce’s catalog that can’t be improved (or at least hasn’t been yet) when performed live.

“None But the Brave” represents Bruce’s songwriting at its finest and the E Street Band at their peak. And like all great art, it challenges the listener and invites multiple lenses and perspectives.

Am I reading too much into the song? Perhaps–I admitted that possibility at the outset. What’s your take on “None But the Brave?” I’d love to read it.

None But the Brave
Recorded: June 27, 1983 (and possibly a 2002-ish vocal track)
Released: The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003)
First performed: December 5, 2003 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: February 18, 2017 (Hunter Valley, Australia)

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9 Replies to “Roll of the Dice: None But the Brave”

  1. This is a a wonderful article written about a great song that deserved to find a home on the Born In the USA album in 1984; I would have gladly sacrificed both Glory Day and Dancing in the Dark on side two for its inclusion along with This Hard Land. Of course, don’t get me started on all of the reasons that Murder Incorporated should have replaced Cover Me on side one. Oh, well. I can only feel grateful that None But the Brave was played at opening night in Wrigley Field in September of 2012 and again at the United Center in late August of 2016; there was a Union Street that was a block away from where I used to live in Chicago on Grand Avenue.

      1. There are still so many outtakes from Born in the USA including Sugarland, Follow That Dream, Unsatisfied Heart, Protection, Little Girl Like You, and A Gun In Every Home.

  2. I think you are on the money with the more modern vocal and the meaning difference in the verse changes but you lose me in the specificity of your 9/11 interpretation. Now that being said, I do agree the essentials version made me think of permenant lost, as in the girl died. Now whether death was on Bruce’s mind from 9/11 and inspired the change who knows? But the change makes it far more powerful emotionally and relatable. Death of a dream, death of youth, death of a person who embodied those things…all factors that make the essentials version one of his very best songs.

  3. I wanna be straight, this song feels a bit unfinished, and disoriented. It’s a great song in many respects but I feel it tries to straddle too many different intentions, and without really ending up anywhere at all. There’s a risk the song will seem shallow, or dim.

    I think you’re right that the first version wants to portray someone left behind in that same neighborhood, clinging to a memory expected technically to be repeatable. The second version appears to (me to) be more about realizing that things don’t stay the same. From someone who’s life moved on somewhat but now is overwhelmed by memories on a trial return. Kind of. The bravery seems to become a haunting ideal. That’s also about them native birds. It’s also peculiar the song has qualities to be quite a crowd rocker, but there’s in the end nothing to celebrate, but a kind of diffuse and common defeat.

    That and the song’s vicinity to BJ and some other songs on BITUSA in theme and feel and lyrics and the like perhaps explains why it was left off. At some points I sense the words could come from verses subtracted from other tunes. There’s a certain nostalgic vein there too (BJ etc) that may prove to be too much on one plate.

    Concerning 9/11 I would assume anything done in the years immediately after would be tinged by that event on several levels, also subconsciously, grappling with sense and meaning and images. Right?

    Mr. Bruce is and was a peculiar man. But that’s what poets are for. Being peculiar in our stead. What would we be?

    I think the song might gain something from being looked at again lyrically. But I’m not the band leader.

    O America… O Vineland

  4. I discovered this song when searching for new songs on tracks and essentials and the
    River outtakes
    songs such as none but the brave Linda Let Me Be The One Janey don’t lose heart Loose Ends party Lights and Be True
    to me they are the essence of Bruce and
    E St. band at its best !!
    None but the brave is a great song, and remains in this group as one of my favorite Bruce ESB songs
    To me the song might be about a first love or an early girlfriend that didn’t work out seemingly from your life in a small town. For whatever reason the girl is gone, the relationship is over but we all know we are always looking for that connection and feeling of our first love again! Is this guy brave enough to keep looking or will he settle ? It’s all up to him or us!!
    Thank goodness for Jake for continuing the great sax required on these songs also

    long with Bruce!!

  5. I always heard this song as the narrator (in this case Bruce) being encouraged by a girl to be brave and go become a star. He never falls out of love with her…there are references to passing cars and strangers eyes…the narrator is living the rock star life on the road but he misses his girl.

    Now he’s back home and nothing is the same. Perhaps the girl moved on and is married with kids but the narrator still longs for what he left behind.

    The line “looking for I don’t know what for” reminds me of the line from Broadway when Bruce talks about going home to his old block later in life “looking for I don’t know what for.”

    The last verse I believe to be “guilty Bruce.” He goes home a big star but sees everyone else stuck and wonders who decided I would have my dream come true?

    Glad I found your site-these essays are fabulous.

  6. I think the solo does a fantastic job of conveying that feeling the protagonist is having in that moment… getting lost in a feeling, a memory; by the end of it, reality hits him hard.

    At least, for me, I felt every note of it during a time when I was the protagonist in this song; only difference was, I did the breaking up, not her.

    Yet, when I look back on that time, I sometimes wonder “what if?” And, like the song’s protagonist, there’s no closure sought… Nor, to be had. There’s just a lot of unresolved feelings.

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