Roll of the Dice: Maria’s Bed

In the micro-genre of Bruce Springsteen Songs About Sexual Obsession, Possibly Concerning a Prostitute, “Maria’s Bed” looms large.

I learned long ago that my tastes are no arbiter of whether a song becomes a hit or flies under the radar, but come on: “Maria’s Bed” is easily one of Bruce’s best 21st-century songs. (Except that I’m not entirely convinced he wrote it in this century. More on that later.)

Unlike the thematically similar “Candy’s Room,” which drips with furious self-delusion, or the self-loathing, literal aftermath of “Reno” (more on that later as well), “Maria’s Bed” jaunts along in a playful, infectious country slide and stomp. It’s Bruce at his most carefree, singing in an unusually high register.

Take a listen:

Goddammit, that’s a good song.

And for a refreshing change, it’s the instrumental track that gives wings to “Maria’s Bed” moreso than the lyrics. Soozie’s violin has never been showcased so splendidly, Bruce’s guitar work (interwoven with Brendan O’Brien’s hurdy gurdy (you read that right) is delicately ambling, and the keyboards (Bruce again!) sound for all the world like the whistle of a man with no cares in the world. Musically, this is a perfect track.

It’s no slouch lyrically either, but it’s also something of a puzzle. At times it feels masterful, full of sublime, effortless metaphor: candy stick kisses, a wolf dog moon, sifting through dust for fools good, burned by angels and sold wings of lead–those are terrific turns of phrase that roll by so smoothly that we almost don’t notice their brilliance.

But “Maria’s Bed” is also full of callbacks to and swipes from other Springsteen songs–so much so that one can’t help but wonder if Bruce was being lazy or deliberate:

Been on a barbed wire highway 40 days and nights
I ain’t complaining, that’s my job and it suits me right
I got a sweet soft fever rushing around my head
I’m gonna sleep tonight in Maria’s bed

Four lines in, and we might as well be listening to “Working on the Highway:”

I work for the county out on ninety five
All day I hold a red flag and watch the traffic pass me by
In my head I keep a picture of a pretty little miss
Someday, mister, I’m gonna lead a better life than this

Pretty similar first verses, don’t you think?

But the second verse of “Maria’s Bed” is a verbatim swipe from a different Springsteen song:

Got on a dead man’s suit and smiling skull ring
Lucky graveyard boots and a song to sing
I keep my heart in my work, my troubles in my head
And I keep my soul in Maria’s bed

Those first two lines made a previous appearance in “Further On (Up the Road)” on Bruce’s previous album, The Rising–and that song actually dates back to the Reunion Tour, which raises the question:

Did Bruce recycle that lyric on purpose, or is this another case (of which there are many) of Bruce taking the seed of a song in two different directions at the same time?

I tend to side toward the latter as the more likely explanation: we already know that Devils & Dust contains songs written and recorded a decade or more before the release of the album (Bruce once disclosed that most of the album was written during the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, and “All the Way Home” dates back even further), so it’s very possible that “Maria’s Bed” was a sibling–perhaps even an older sibling–to “Further On (Up the Road).”

Either way, it’s an odd choice of phrasing for a song like “Maria’s Bed.” It works perfectly in “Further On (Up the Road)” but here it’s jarring. Perhaps that’s the point, though: Bruce devotes a few lines of grim, dark shading in order to more effectively offset the remainder of the song, which paints Maria in primary colors:

I been up on sugar mountain, ‘cross the sweet blue seas
I walked the valley of love and tears and mystery
I got run out of luck and gave myself up for dead
Then I drank the cool clear waters from Maria’s bed

She give me candy stick kisses ‘neath a wolf dog moon
One sweet breath and she’ll take you, mister, to the upper room
I was burned by the angels, sold wings of lead
Then I fell in the roses and sweet salvation of Maria’s bed

The final verse features some wonderfully apt metaphor:

I been out in the desert, yeah doing my time
Sifting through the dust for fools gold, looking for a sign
Holy man said, “Hold on, brother, there’s a light up ahead.”
Ain’t nothing like the light that shines on me in Maria’s bed

It’s so good, in fact, that Bruce used it once before–a second swipe from “Further On (Up the Road):”

Now I been out in the desert just doing my time
Searching through the dust looking for a sign
If there’s a light up ahead, well brother I don’t know
But I got this fever burning in my soul

Notice the almost-verbatim recycling of the first two lines and the parallel (but more faithful in “Maria’s Bed”) third line. Even the “fever” reference in the last line of “Further” appears in similar form earlier in “Maria’s Bed,” strengthening the argument that both songs were written around the same time.

But if “Maria’s Bed” has ties to both “Working on the Highway” and “Further On (Up the Road),” it’s strongest connection is the one that’s completely invisible if you listen to the song on its own… but that jumps right out and grabs your heart if you listen to the Devils & Dust album in sequence.

“Maria’s Bed” is the sixth song on the album; if it was a vinyl LP, it would probably be the end of Side One. A few songs earlier, we encounter the heart-wrencher that is “Reno.” And it’s impossible to do either “Maria’s Bed” or “Reno” justice without discussing their relation to each other.

Both songs revolve around a woman named Maria, who remains unseen in both songs as well. Whereas “Maria’s Bed” is the excited, carefree, heel-clicking jaunt of a man anticipating a hot night ahead, “Reno” is a story of loss, a man trying and failing to reconjure his lost love (Maria) in the form of a stranger. Both protagonists are hopelessly devoted to the object of their obsession.

Listening to both songs in close succession raises the fascinating questions and possibilities:

Is “Reno” a tragic sequel to “Maria’s Bed,” in which our hero loses his love and is never able to move forward?

Is “Maria’s Bed” the self-deluded fantasy of a haunted widower, hoping to find glimmers of his lost love in the arms of another, like sifting through dust for fool’s gold?

Or is it merely coincidence that Bruce co-locates both songs on the same album?

Given how deliberate Bruce is with his work, I lean toward the prequel/sequel scenario, and when viewed through that lens, both songs take on far more power than they have individually. “Maria’s Bed” in particular, is now tinged by distant shadows of poignant loss that underline the song’s bright, sunny present. It’s uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time, a brilliant disguise of a song in which both the mask and the substance are masterful.

But regardless of how one chooses to interpret the song, there’s no denying its infectious instrumental track. So it’s mystifying (and for me at least, maddening) that Bruce has yet to break out “Maria’s Bed” even once with the E Street Band.

We know Bruce had to at least consider it, because he frequently summoned an imaginary E Street Band (to a surprisingly powerful effect) while playing it acoustically on the Devils & Dust tour.

…and two lucky crowds in Philly in Holmdel were treated to absolutely delightful full-band work-ups on the Seeger Sessions tour a year later, complete with strings and horns:

So surely, one would think, “Maria’s Bed” would be a sure-fire setlist contender for the next E Street Band Tour.

And yet, it’s been more than a decade since “Maria’s Bed” last appeared, unless you count a single pre-show appearance in Belfast in 2013, but that was an impromptu acoustic performance (and arguably his least impressive live performance of the song).

Chalk up its continuing absence from the E Street stage as just anther of the mysteries and puzzles of “Maria’s Bed.” It remains high on my chase list for the next tour.

Maria’s Bed
Recorded: 1996-2004
Released: Devils & Dust (2005)
First performed: March 10, 2005 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: July 20, 2013 (Belfast, Northern Ireland)

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