Roll of the Dice: Better Days

It’s possible that I’m biased.

After all, I’d been married a grand total of 11 days to a woman I’d started dating not even four months prior, when “Better Days” was released as the first single ahead of the upcoming Lucky Town album.

But c’mon… how is it possible not to love this song? It just pours happiness and contentment and wonder into the world, and unlike his previous album (Tunnel of Love), I knew exactly how Bruce felt when he wrote and recorded this new material.

There are those that argue that great art is born out of heartbreak and pain, not love and contentment. That may be true, but if so, here’s an exception.

I usually start these essays off with the studio version, but to me, the definitive cut is the video version-it’s a tad longer and a ton more exuberant. Just look at the carefree expression on Bruce’s face throughout the video–this is a Bruce Springsteen we had not seen before.

The lyrics hardly need annotation; “Better Days” is among Bruce’s most accessible songs. He’d reached a point in his life where he’d come to terms with his inner demons (or at least was in the process of doing so), and he’d started a family of his own with new wife Patti Scialfa in California and was enjoying the fruits of his commercial success.

Bruce’s life had changed dramatically for the better, but his art was adrift, untethered from the sources of pain that infused his previous albums. Much has been made of the relative weakness of the Human Touch album (there are some great tracks on that album along with the stinkers), but somewhere in the process of finalizing that album, Bruce tapped into his self-satisfaction and cranked out ten songs that became the very underrated Lucky Town album–led off by “Better Days” as track one, and the first single, the anthem for this phase of Bruce’s career.

As the song begins, Bruce recalls the ennui that enveloped him in the 1980s. He may have been a force of nature on stage, but his inner life was lacking:

Well my soul checked out missing as I sat listening to the hours and minutes ticking away
Just sitting around waiting for my life to begin while it was all just slipping away
I’m tired of waiting for tomorrow to come or that train to come roaring ’round the bend
I got a new suit of clothes and a pretty red rose and a woman I can call my friend

…and right there, we have the key: Patti Scialfa. (Note: I realize it’s dangerous to extrapolate autobiography from a song–if that were always true, we’d have had serious cause for worry after “Nebraska” and most of the Tom Joad album–but in this case, I think we’re on pretty solid ground.)

These are better days, baby
Yeah there’s better days shining through
These are better days, baby
Better days with a girl like you

The next two verses feature (in my opinion) some of the best lyrics from Bruce’s entire catalog. First, he cops self-deprecatingly to the irony of being dissatisfied with a life most would kill for:

Well I took a piss at fortune’s sweet kiss, it’s like eating caviar and dirt
It’s a sad funny ending to find yourself pretending a rich man in a poor man’s shirt

That coupling of rhyming metaphors–“eating caviar and dirt” and “a rich man in a poor man’s shirt”–that’s  lyrical gold. Easily in my Top Springsteen Lyrics list (if I had one).

The runners up:

Now a life of leisure and a pirate’s treasure don’t make much for tragedy
It’s a sad man my friend who’s living in his own skin and can’t stand the company
Every fool’s got a reason to feeling sorry for himself and turning his heart to stone
Tonight this fool’s halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell and I feel like I’m coming home

Those lines in bold–that’s just some killer imagery. But look past them, and realize what Bruce is saying. Decades before he shared his bouts with depression in his autobiography, here’s Bruce confessing that he’s not comfortable in his own skin, and that he realizes that he can’t share that fact with anyone–because who would understand? Who would feel sorry for the rich, talented, admired, and fabulously successful rock star?

In Patti, Bruce found someone who understood him, who he could open up to, who validated the parts of himself he couldn’t share with others and freed him to accept himself. That’s an amazing gift, and those of us who have been lucky enough in life to have received it as well–we know what he’s singing about, and we recognize that look on his face.

Now here’s the album track for comparison. (Fun fact: that’s Randy Jackson from American Idol on bass, and Soozie Tyrell contributes backing vocals, a full decade before she joined the E Street Band (in spirit if not in legal fact)).

In concert, “Better Days” was a staple of the 1992 and 1993 tours, but it’s only been seen fourteen times since. One of those times was acoustic–a lovely guitar-and-harmonica arrangement, and a duet with Elliot Murphy in Paris from 2005:

Better Days
Recorded: 1991-1992
Released: Lucky Town (1992), Greatest Hits (1995), The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003)
First performed: May 6, 1992 (New York City, NY)
Last performed: February 14, 2017 (Brisbane, Australia)

Looking for your favorite Bruce song? Check our full index here. New entries every week!