When I started this blog, I promised to make my way through Bruce’s entire catalog–released and unreleased–and give each song due consideration and analysis.
But I’m sorry: I simply cannot make it through a single listen of “Mary Louise Watson” — a bluesy unreleased Springsteen original from his Steel Mill days — without recalling this classic (and probably NSFW, so be forewarned) scene from Weird Science:
I mean, come on. Listen to Bruce’s early 1971 performance below, and especially when you get to the spoken-word mid-song break, tell me you aren’t picturing Anthony Michael Hall with Bruce’s voice.
Often when I listen to one of Bruce’s 1971 recordings, I have to remind myself that he was only 21 years old at the time. Other times–like this one–it’s painfully obvious.
So I’m gonna forgo the lyrical analysis this time. I’m pretty sure the song speaks for itself.
To his credit, by the end of that same year, Bruce had dramatically reworked the song into more of a straightforward rocker, and he’d pared back and streamlined the lyrics, removing all references to “Heavy” Louise and comparing her instead to a black widow spider (this version is sometimes referred to by that title, in fact).
The sound quality isn’t great, but here’s the only other known instance of “Mary Louise Watson/Black Widow Spider” from mid-December 1971, this time performed by The Bruce Springsteen Band.
While the earlier version might play to ears today as a novelty song, from a historical perspective it offers us insight into a very young Bruce still developing his stage presence and patter.
Mary Louise Watson
Never recorded/released
First performed: January 18, 1971 (South Amboy, NJ)
Last performed: December 17, 1971 (New Brunswick, NJ)
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