Roll of the Dice: Drive All Night

Zappos!

…is what my wife yells in frustration every time “Drive All Night” comes across my playlist.

She’s perennially mystified by this song:

• What shoe store is open all night?
• Why the urgency? Who needs new shoes in the middle of the night?
• How will he know whether the shoes will fit her?
• What man can reliably pick out a pair of shoes to fit his partner’s taste?
• Is this really the most romantic gesture he can think of?

I tell her she’s listening to the wrong part of the song: The lyrics are just the accompaniment. The real declaration of love is that saxophone solo.

Lord, that sax. Clarence Clemons may have turned in some more technically impressive solos in his time, but in “Drive All Night,” Clarence carries the emotional heft of the song and delivers one of the most ardent, powerful, true-blue love notes ever recorded.

Gets me every dang time.

It sneaks up on you–the song begins with Garry Tallent’s slow, methodical bassline and a simple five-note piano motif (played by Bruce). For the first minute, there’s no hint of what’s to come, as Bruce sets the scene:

When I lost you honey, sometimes I think I lost my guts too
And I wish God would send me a word, send me something I’m afraid to lose

Lyrically, we’re in “Back in Your Arms” territory (that later song is essentially “Drive All Night” as performed by the Righteous Brothers) — Bruce done screwed up, and he can’t fix it.

Right at the one-minute mark, the song lifts off from the earth, as Bruce’s vocals become higher-pitched and more strident:

Lying in the heat of the night like prisoners all our lives
And I get shivers down my spine, girl, and all I wanna do is hold you tight

And then that wife-infuriating chorus:

I swear I’ll drive all night again just to buy you some shoes and to taste your tender charms
And I just wanna sleep tonight again in your arms

(See? “Drive All Night” = “Back in Your Arms”)

And then at the two-minute mark, Roy Bittan sprinkles organ and harpsichord like snow and stardust across the scene.

Bruce surveys the scene and knows his odds are slim:

Tonight there’s fallen angels and they’re waiting for us down in the street
And tonight there’s calling strangers, hear them crying in defeat

The lovers are obviously in the same house, if not the same room. But there’s a distance he can’t close, and he’s not about to give up without a fight. Or begging.

Let them go, let them go, let them go do their dances of the dead
Let ’em go right ahead, girl
You just dry your eyes
And come on, come on, come on, come on… let’s go to bed

That’s a perfect verse right there–music and lyrics perfectly attuned to each other, at once defiant and desperate, bravado and vulnerability.

And then the chorus again, as Max momentarily summons Bruce’s determination at the top.

and then…

and then…

That sax.

It’s majestic and soaring, tireless and resolute, aching and soothing–it encapsulates the entire song in a brief solo.

Even Bruce acknowledges that Clarence is carrying the weight, as he echoes “I know, I know, I know” underneath Clarence.

Fueled with passion and determination, Bruce isn’t backing down–he’s a veritable US postal carrier:

You’ve got, you’ve got, you’ve got my, my love, girl, you’ve got my love, girl
Through the wind, through the rain, the snow, the wind, the rain
You’ve got, you’ve got my, my love, oh girl you’ve got my love
You’ve got, you’ve got my love, oh girl you’ve got my love
You’ve got, you’ve got my love, oh girl you’ve got my love
You’ve got, you’ve got my love, oh girl you’ve got my love

And if Bruce can hold a candle to Clarence’s solo at any point in the song, it’s in the culminating “Heeeeeaaaaaaaarrrrt and Soooooooooooouuuuul” refrain that rivals the wordless howl in “Jungleland” in its loaded power.

As the song takes its time winding to a conclusion, Bruce never wavers in his conviction:

Through the wind
Through the rain
Through the snow

He’ll drive all night.

“Drive All Night” is easily in my top ten all-time favorite Springsteen songs. That list changes frequently, but I don’t think DAN ever left it. In concert, it’s performed only rarely (outside of the River full-album shows) and it only grows in power over time.

Interestingly, for long-time fans, “Drive All Night” began in concert: the first time Bruce sang the lyrics was in an introduction to “Backstreets” on New Years’ Eve in 1977. That show is available on YouTube, but it omits the one-time-only introduction. Check it out below to hear the first-ever proto-“Drive All Night.”

But many fans were first exposed to the lyrics in a mid-song performance art piece that characterized “Backstreets” from 1977 through 1978. The interlude came to be known as “Sad Eyes” and typically conveyed a tale of anger and betrayal, but at times during the Darkness tour, some familiar lines shone through:

(The melody was familiar too, for Van Morrison fans–Bruce’s mid-song reverie was very much influenced by if not an homage to Morrison’s “Madam George.”)

The piece was so different from night to night that would be natural to wonder whether Bruce was inventing lyrics on the spot. Maybe he was, but not for “Drive All Night.” That song had already been recorded, but not released–so Bruce incorporated the powerful lines into his mid-set performance piece. (I’ve read accounts that maintain that Bruce wrote the song as a by-product of the “Sad Eyes” interlude, but studio session notes clearly show that isn’t the case.)

Here’s an early cut of the song, recorded in August 1977. It lacks the bassline and sax solo, and Bruce’s piano is more tentative than in the final version; as a result, it lacks the power and heft of the finished version.

(The lyrics are also rough– “your jewelers’ eye” is a bit clunky and would be dropped before the final recording.)

Here’s an almost final version–“jeweler’s eye” is still in there, but otherwise, it’s very close to the final cut. In fact, the instrumental track is the same one used in the album version, and the sax solo is up-front and bright.

If you’re lucky enough to catch “Drive All Night” live in concert, it’s bound to be the highlight of the night. The song breathes and builds and bursts with emotion, especially on the recent River tour.

I chased this song for years and finally landed it in St. Louis in 2008–and then somehow managed to be present at four more shows (out of a total of only 11) where it was played between then and 2014. I’ve now heard it live a total of fourteen times, and it never loses its power of transport.

Here are two of my favorite live performances:

The first features just Bruce, Steve, and Clarence playing acoustically in 2005. Steve’s acoustic six-string laces the determined vocals with delicacy and fragility, and the effect is gorgeous–this may be my favorite arrangement of the song.

…but my all-time favorite performance is from the second night of three in Los Angeles in 2016. I don’t know what sparked it, but the band’s performance was transcendent (Jake does his uncle proud), and both Bruce and the crowd recognized it. Bruce stretched the song out even longer than usual to a full twelve minutes, building coda upon coda as the audience broke out their lighters and cellphones, lighting up the arena in a beautiful moment of community. You can see it happen shortly after the ten-minute mark.

That final minute, with the band aglow and the audience rapt and Bruce refusing to end the song–that minute is one of my favorite minutes at a Springsteen show.

Or as Bruce says as the final bars fade, “That’s nice.”

Drive All Night
Recorded: 1977 (music), 1980 (vocals)
Released: The River (1980)
First performed: October 18, 1980 (St. Louis, MO)
Last performed: January 27, 2017 (Perth, Australia)

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