Roll of the Dice: The Big Payback

Talk about an obscurity: “The Big Payback” is one of the least-known officially released Springsteen songs.

That’s probably because it was an afterthought of sorts to Nebraska, recorded (along with “My Father’s House“) in 1981, a few months after the rest of the songs that formed Bruce’s first acoustic album.

It didn’t make the album, but Bruce released it in 1982 as the B-side to the the single for “Open All Night” (a great pairing, and yes Nebraska did spawn singles).

A decade later, Bruce released it as another B-side–this time for “Leap of Faith.” Why? I have no idea.

And finally, more than a decade after that, Bruce finally put this dark, deceptively upbeat rockabilly outtake on an album… on the “bonus disc” of the limited-edition version of The Essential Bruce Springsteen.

Geez. You’d think the guy was embarrassed about the song or something. It’s not as if it couldn’t have fit on Nebraska–it’s not even two minutes long! But the most likely reason for “The Big Payback” not making it onto Nebraska is that it’s too close in sound to “Open All Night.” The two songs start out virtually identically, in fact. Take a listen to the A-side:

…and now listen to the B-side:

I’d argue that “The Big Payback” is just as taut and edgy as “Open All Night” but even more fun to sing along to.

In typical Nebraska fashion, “The Big Payback” features an anti-hero, but it’s a slow burn until we realize that. At first, we think we’re just being introduced to another of Bruce’s stock working stiff characters:

I bought a scooter and I rented a shack
Out in the sun by the railroad track
I got a job and I’m a-breaking my back
Working and working for the big payback

I keep a-putting and a-puttin’ out
I keep a-sweating like all get out
I work so long that I’m a-losing track
Waiting waiting on the big payback

Our narrator, Bobby (we’ll soon learn his name), is doing hard, honest labor with the expectation of a big payday. But it never comes. His job uses him, drains him, and he knows it will someday discard him like a cheap one-night stand once it’s taken all it can take from him:

Well it’s a wham-bam, thank you ma’am, goddamn, look out Sam
It’s a gone dead train rumbling down this track
They got your neck in the noose, you’re dragging long in back
Chasing and chasing the big payback

Now it’d be one thing if Bobby had some solidarity out there on the line. But he seems to be on his own, sweating and toiling while his foreman… well, I’m pretty sure we don’t need Urban Dictionary to tell us what “diddy wack wack” is in reference to. (But I’m dying to know how Bruce came up with the phrase.)

Oh what my foreman does well I don’t know
He just throws me a shovel and yells “Go, Bobby, Go”
Oh well-a all day long he’s just a diddy wack wack
While I’m sweating and sweating for the big payback

Yeah it’s a wham bam, thank you ma’am, god damn, look out Sam
It’s a gone dead train rumbling down the track
They got your neck in the noose, your hands are tied up in back
And you’re a-working and working for the big payback

And now the song turns sinister, both lyrically and vocally:

I quit that job and Mister I ain’t going back
Got me a knife and she’s a long and black
I’ll tell you how I make my piece at night Mac
Down in the alley of the big payback

Bobby’s looking for the easy money now, lying in wait in a dark alley with long knife. And those “gone dead train” and “neck in the noose” metaphors… well, they don’t seem so metaphorical now that they’re turned around:

I go a wham bam, thank you ma’am, god damn, c’mon man
You’re a gone dead train rumbling down this track
I got your neck in the noose and I don’t give a damn Jack
I’m on that long lost highway of the big payback

Bobby repeats that last line as the song fades, heading farther down the dark path he’s chosen, paying back the world in violence for the perceived injustice done to him.

Like I said: this is Nebraska material through and through. It’s also some of Bruce’s best songwriting: tight, taut, deceptively slight and increasingly sinister.

“The Big Payback” deserves a lot more exposure than it gets. Bruce has never once played it in concert–not even during the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, where it would have worked nicely. And while we don’t have a full-band arrangement to listen to, it’s not hard to imagine the E Street Band having a ton of fun with it on stage.

So maybe Bruce will someday remember about “The Big Payback” and give Bobby a chance to make it big on stage. But given Bobby’s bad luck and karma, it’s more likely he’ll stay condemned to lurking in the dark alleys of B-sides and bonus discs.

The Big Payback
Recorded: January-April 1982
Released: The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003)
Never performed

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