On the afternoon of September 20, 1978, if you were lurking in the shadows of the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey, you might have witnessed first-hand Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band rehearsing a brand new song–or more accurately, a work in progress.
For the rest of us, we’ll have to make do with this video record of a very early prototype for what would become “The Ties That Bind.”
It’s easy to focus on the unfamiliar melody, but it’s fascinating to examine the lyrics: they are a complete inversion of the classic we know and love (only a few snippets would survive in the final version), and yet the moral is the same: when you’re alone, you’re alone. Or perhaps more accurately: two hearts are better than one.
(I’ve always thought that “The Ties That Bind” and “Two Hearts” are essentially the same song told the same way from the same perspective, and given the wealth of material to choose from for The River, it remains a mystery to me why he chose to put both songs on that album. But that’s a mystery to ponder another day.)
This early, unrecognizable version of “The Ties That Bind” is told from the opposite perspective. In this take, it’s the protagonist who is the loner–but with enough self-awareness to recognize that he can’t fully cut his heart off from his girl. He has unbreakable ties binding him to her, no matter how far away he rides:
Well tonight I’ll pack my bags
And babe tonight I’ll ride
There won’t be anything
No one at my side
There’s just a cold dark highway (cold dark highway)
And a thin white line (thin white line)
Connecting me to the ties that bind
But in that lonely hour
Right before the sun
Baby, gotta believe
You’re the only one
Because this strength in your heart
Is all I got to remind me
No man can forsake the ties that bind
It didn’t take long for Bruce to realize that the song would be more powerful if delivered from the other side of the bed, because by the time he played it live in concert for the first time only six weeks later in Princeton, it had already evolved to a much more familiar form.
Here’s the second-ever performance from the following night in Largo, MD:
The perspective has now shifted–in this version, we’re in “Two Hearts” territory–there’s even a line that would migrate over to that song someday:
Outside, inside, anyway you wanna go
There’s one thing, darling, that I know
People cry and wonder who’s gonna stop the rain
Ease the sadness, who’s gonna quiet your pain
You’ll walk the wire, will you stand and walk the line
And then a completely different bridge (the same musical bridge from “The Brokenhearted“) with lyrics that seem more condemning and angry than empathetic:
Keeping it safe, if you can, then you’ll be a savior
You can’t run from your blood, with that call
Tell ’em that you mean
Don’t you feel it, baby
It’s pumping in your veins, girl
Bruce still had some tweaking to do, and it didn’t take him long–five weeks later, the song was in its almost-final form:
The music isn’t quite there, but it’s very close–and the lyrics are spot on, and the changes make all the difference:
A cheap romance, you say it’s just just just a crush
You don’t want nothing that anybody can touch
You’re so afraid of being somebody’s fool
Not walking tough, baby, not walking cool
You’re walking cool, but baby can you walk the line
Now it’s clear that the narrator has empathy for the woman he sings about–he understands that her aloofness is born from fear.
But it’s the bridge that seals the deal:
I’d rather feel the hurt inside, yes I would darling
Than know the emptiness that you hide
Yes I would darling, yes I would darling, yes I would honey
It’s now crystal clear that he’s wounded, too–in fact, the “darling” and “honey” imply that he’s probably the one she’s running from. Perhaps they’d had a fight. Perhaps he’d said or done something hurtful–something that sent her packing, down the street, cried out and pushing people out of her way. But he recognizes their connection and wants to work for it.
(It’s only at this point–at the end of the song–that “Ties” becomes a different song than “Two Hearts,” in which the narrator remains detached.)
By the time Bruce recorded the song in April 1979 (and revisited it a year later for The River), he’d added a final verse, salvaging discarded lyrics from earlier versions but making the connection between the two characters clearer:
You sit and wonder just who’s gonna stop the rain
Who’ll ease the sadness, who’s gonna quiet your pain
It’s a long dark highway and a thin white line
Connecting baby your heart to mine
We’re running now but darling we will stand in time
By the time “The Ties That Bind” was officially released on The River in 1980, Bruce and the band had performed it in concert 27 times, steadily evolving it along the way. It isn’t the only song from his catalog (or even that album) previewed and refined on stage, but given its remarkable journey and powerful theme (Bruce would often revisit the battle of isolation vs. vulnerability), it’s not surprising that it was almost the title track of the album before it expanded from one to two discs.
On the River Tour, “The Ties That Bind” was a setlist staple, but it disappeared immediately after, resurfacing only after 18 years on the Reunion tour. It’s been a staple of every E Street Band tour since–and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Some ties really do bind.
Bonus: There are many arrangements of “The Ties That Bind” prior to its release, but only a single new one since–and it’s wonderful. Here’s the rarely performed (seven times only) acoustic version:
The Ties That Bind
Recorded: April 10-11, 1979; April 10, 1980
Released: The River (1980), The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (alternate version) (2015)
First Performed: November 1, 1978 (Princeton, NJ)
Last Performed: June 24, 2023 (Gothenburg, Sweden)
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