Judging from the three work-in-progress demo recordings of “True Love Is Hard to Come By” that have escaped into the wild, we might conclude that Bruce was never quite able to figure out what we wanted to do with this song.
He tried different styles, from reggae…
…to Latin…
…to a more straightforward ballad (around the 1:45 mark above). There’s something familiar about that last melody–if it remind you just a bit of another song in the first couple of lines, then listen to attempt #3, and the first couple of lines should jump right out at you:
Yep, those lines:
Til the sun is torn from the sky
Til every river, baby, it runs dry.
are the genetic ancestor of “Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart.” The last lines of that song are:
‘Til every river, baby, it runs dry
Until the sun, honey, is torn from the sky
Bruce recorded these demos in early 1982, and reportedly the E Street Band took a crack at at in 1983. Maybe someday we’ll get to hear what they came up with.
True Love Is Hard to Come By
Never Released
Never Performed
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