Roll of the Dice: Oh No No No

Sometimes, Bruce’s unreleased, recorded lyrics stand on their own as poetry. But sometimes, you really need the music to know what he was going for.

“Oh No No No” is in the latter category.

All we have to go on is this hand-written lyrics sheet from Bruce’ Steel Mill era…

…but even though the verses are legible and fully formed, “Oh No No No” was clearly intended to be about the chorus–an emotional release, a musical primal scream, perhaps? We’ll probably never know.

Even so, “Oh No No No” is notable for its verses:

The first verse may be Bruce’s earliest attempt at writing from the female perspective:

My man he don’t listen, he don’t even care
It’s like the words come out of my mouth, and disappear in thin air
He reads his newspaper or watches TV
Whatever happened to the love he swore on me

He’d get better at it over time.

The second verse sets up the he-said/she-said gimmick of the song:

My woman don’t know what she’s talkin’ about
The words flow like a river out of her mouth
She never stops bitchin’ but she’s gonna see
Who wears the pants in this romance, you know that it’s me

At this point, it almost sounds like Bruce is setting up a duet, perhaps a novelty one. But the final verse (at least the final one we’re able to see) entrenches the male point-of-view as the dominant one.

Well there’s gonna be a shootout to see who runs this show
I’m tired of your bitchin’, I’m gonna let you know
But every time I start into talking she makes me so mad
I just throw up my hands and scream

No no no no no, No no no no no
And a no no no, with a ah ah ah and a hey hey hey
why does love have to be this way, tell me mama

Bruce almost certainly would have developed the song further–we don’t know if he ever got around to it (this lyric sheet is all we have), but the asymmetry of the verses and the single chorus suggests that more back and forth was originally planned (and given the time period, most likely a guitar jam to underscore the emotional angst).

Still, given what we have here, even if Bruce had finished and recorded the song, it’s doubtful we’d consider it an early gem. As far as relationship songs go, it’s not exactly Tunnel of Love material.

Oh No No No
Never recorded
Never performed

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