“Jumbeliah” is a curiosity–a fully realized Bruce Springsteen original composition penned during Bruce’s brief transition from his heavier Steel Mill writing to his more bluesy, hookier Bruce Springsteen Band writing. In fact, Bruce wrote “Jumbeliah” during his super-brief (if you blinked, you’d have missed it) Dr. Zoom period.
Listening the to the earliest known recording of “Jumbeliah” below–from the latter of the only two concerts Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom is known to have played, back in 1971–it’s easier to hear Bruce’s seventies songwriting style emerging:
What’s particularly remarkable is how tight the lyrics are: Bruce’s early work sometimes feels like it truly was written with thesaurus and rhyming dictionary in hand (as he was fond of half-joking in later years), full of florid imagery, colorfully named characters and pinpoint geography.
But “Jumbeliah” is an exercise in restraint–we learn that she lives in Louisiana, but apparently that’s all we need to know. Where she hails from doesn’t matter anyway–that’s the least important thing about her:
Well I got a girl, I wanna tell you her name
She lives way down south in New Orleans
Well she’s strong like a lion, she’s wild like a tiger
And I call my woman Jumbeliah
Jumbeliah, she’s my fire
And while I normally take pains to distinguish between the singer and the point-of-view character, Bruce makes it seem as if this song is perhaps a bit more personal than he usually lets on:
Oh, well she hits you like a hurricane
Well she drives old Dr. Zoom insane
She’s a good little woman, she’s a hot rock and roller
She’s built like Marilyn Monroe and she walks like Smokey Stover
Jumbeliah, she’s my fire
Dr. Zoom, as we know, isn’t just a colorful nickname for an invented character. That’s Bruce himself–the leader of Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom–singing about a woman who obviously made an impression on him at some point. (Although I’m pretty sure a woman built like Marilyn Monroe who walks like Smokey Stover (seriously, Bruce?) would make an impression on anyone.)
The band also makes an appearance in the lyrics:
Jumbeliah, she’s my fire
Well she, when she get you, she locks you in her room
She comes on to you like a big sonic boom
Oh when she loves a man, she puts him in clover
She loves him so hard, all you can do is
Roll over, roll over, roll over, roll over
…and that’s enough of a coincidence to make one wonder about the band on the song: which is the chicken and which is the egg?
It’s quite possible the band name was inspired by the song, rather than the other way around–what few records and first-hand accounts we have indicates that the “Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom” name came shortly before their first show, right around the time the band first started rehearsing “Jumbeliah.”
Either way, sometimes it’s best not to ponder these things too much. “Jumbeliah” isn’t meant to provoke reflection–it’s just a great rock jam that you can dance to and sing along with, and sometimes that’s all you aim for.
Bruce performed “Jumbeliah” live in concert a total of five times (that we know of)–twice as Dr.Zoom, and thrice as the leader of The Bruce Springsteen Band. (Bruce made some surgical changes to the lyrics for the latter three shows to remove the references to his short-lived band.)
That early performance above is notable not just for its great sound quality–when the music stops briefly, it also provides a rare opportunity to hear the individual voices of the band members. You can clearly hear Southside Johnny’s unmistakable pipes on the “roll overs.”
There’s one other other great recording, a longer one at that, from The Bruce Springsteen Band’s performance at Damrosch Park later that summer. I’ll leave you with that one, so you can hear the difference the new band makes.
But before I do, there’s one other lyrical coincidence I can’t let slide:
Well she was born and bred down Louisiana
Dressed in blue jeans and a red bandana
What do you know… it looks like Bruce had his eighties look in mind long before Born in the U.S.A.
Jumbeliah
Never recorded
First performed: May 14, 1971 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: September 1, 1971 (Long Branch, NJ)
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