At first, it seems like we’re in “Ain’t Good Enough For You” territory: a sad sack hero doing his best to please his girl, only to find that she sets the bar just a little bit higher than he can clear.
But “Cindy” quickly takes a darker turn, and it isn’t long before we realize that our narrator may be more of a stalker than a suitor.
“Cindy” is an outcast from The River, although it was a finalist among the dozens of songs Bruce cut during those recording sessions, and it was actually on the original single-album version that Bruce submitted to the record label. It was ultimately dropped very late in the game, and that’s too bad–because much like “Hungry Heart,” it combines the trappings of romantic pop with darker lyrics and undertones. It would have fit very nicely on the album. Let’s take a listen.
Bruce doesn’t waste any time–there’s no introduction here, just a cold open into a first verse that immediately establishes our sympathies for the singer:
I pick you up with flowers when you get off of work
It’s like you don’t even care, it’s like I’m some kind of jerk
I take you out on a date and then you won’t even kiss me
Boy, when I ain’t around I’ll bet you don’t even miss me
I don’t know why, I love you like I do
I try and try, you treat me like a fool
It makes me wanna cry, it makes me feel so blue
But I just do, baby, I just do
Poor guy! He’s trying his best to be a good boyfriend, isn’t he? He’s attentive, doting even, but his girl just seems to take him for granted.
Or does she?
I call you up just to pass the time
Soon as you hear my voice you disconnect the line
And when I call you back, your mother says you ain’t home
Cindy, I know that’s you on the other end of this phone
Um.
Suddenly, this doesn’t exactly sounds like an established relationship, healthy or otherwise. I suppose it could just be a lovers’ quarrel… maybe our narrator is right, and it’s not Cindy’s mom on the phone but rather Cindy herself trying to get him to stop calling. That would be pretty mean, but it seems our self-styled hero likes it that way:
Now in this world there ain’t another like you
My little candy girl, so hard-hearted and cruel
I think that’s what keeps me coming back
I’m a fool for you Cindy and I like it like that
But then the next verse makes it pretty clear that if Cindy really is cruel, her parents have her back:
I came to get you last night, Cindy, at quarter to six
Your daddy came to the door, he said Cindy got sick
She got sent home from work with a note from the nurse
And that my very own presence would make your condition worse
…and then Bruce makes it clear that the narrator’s intentions aren’t as virtuous as he’d led us to believe:
But it ain’t your health, ’cause honey you sure look fine
Little girl it’s something else that’s on my mind
But whatever you’ve got, well you can give it to me
‘Cause if it’s good enough for you, it’s good enough for me
So yeah, we’re in full-on creep mode now.
I don’t know why, I love you like I do
You make me cry and feel like such a fool
I guess I like it when you hurt me this way
You dish it out and I just put it away
…and that’s where we leave our characters, with no indication that Cindy will ever be free of her would-be Romeo, despite her consistent signals of disinterest. Bruce has played a clever trick: rather than putting his characters through a story arc, he takes the listener on a ride instead. The song’s characters don’t change, but our perceptions of them do. It’s a neat feat to pull off in two and a half minutes–impressive enough that we’ll forgive Bruce the occasionally clumsy meter (there are several places where Bruce works hard to stretch or compress syllables to fit the melody).
“Cindy” had been floating around for years in bootleg form before it was released on original single-disc version of The River that accompanied that album’s anniversary box set, and the official version is essentially identical to the bootleg. There is a curious unofficial mix, though, with Clarence providing harmony vocals dialed up way too high in the mix (especially because he flubs the lyrics in a couple of places). It’s an interesting listen, but Bruce made the right decision in submerging Clarence’s vocals in the final mix.
“Cindy” has never been performed live, and even though Bruce makes no attempts to justify or redeem his point-of-view character, in the post-#metoo era, it’s unlikely it ever will.
Cindy
Recorded: July 16, 1979
Released: The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (2015)
Never performed live
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