No other song in Bruce’s catalog brings out his inner ham more than “Talk to Me.”
If you’re lucky enough to get it at one of your shows, it means that Bruce is in a goofy mood. (“Talk to Me” is rarely setlisted; it’s almost always an audible or a sign request.)
Maybe he’ll pout adorably while his wife snubs him on stage, like in Tampa in 2012…
…or maybe he’ll do a little bro-miserating with Southside Johnny (to whom Bruce originally gave the song way back in 1978), like he did in Madrid in 2013. (Seriously, watch this one, these two old friends crack me up every time. Poor Southside’s knees–that was just plain mean of Bruce.)
Or maybe he’ll solicit a little enlightenment from the audience, like he did in Uncasville at the end of the High Hopes Tour. (New clip alert!)
For a man who professed every night on Broadway to be an expert at writing about experiences with which he had no direct experience, one nevertheless suspects from these “Talk to Me” performances that Bruce was more than passingly familiar with the situation he was spoofing. (It certainly rings true to me, and I have a lot of first-hand experience.)
No matter the shtick that accompanies it (which actually has nothing to do with what the song is about, but more on that later), “Talk to Me” is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. It’s also a shot of adrenaline, a horn-fueled, pogo-powered romp that forces one to wonder: why the heck doesn’t Bruce play it more often?
Perhaps it’s because “Talk to Me” occupies such an obscure place in Bruce’s catalog–and because it took such a circuitous route to get there.
Like many of Bruce’s classic songs, we can trace the origin of “Talk to Me” way back to a seemingly improvised vamp before breaking into “She’s the One” on Bruce’s 1976 “Lawsuit Tour.” (You’ll hear it around the 2:40 mark below.)
The Lawsuit Tour earned its unofficial name from the legal battle between Bruce and former manager Mike Appel that kept Bruce out of the studio for the critical years that followed the release of Bruce’s breakthrough smash album, Born to Run. Bruce and the E Street Band had to stay on the road for almost two years in order to earn a living–hence the nickname that attached itself to the tour’s final legs.
Bruce finally got the legal green light to start recording again when he and Appel settled their dispute on May 28, 1977. Four days later, Bruce was back in the studio recording material for what would become Darkness on the Edge of Town.
One of the earliest songs Bruce recorded during those sessions was “Talk to Me,” with takes logged as early as July. Musically, it appears that “Talk to Me” was in its final form early on–the backing track below dates back to August 1977. It’s missing Bruce’s vocals as well as the horns, but musically, it’s clearly the song we know and love. It’s worth listening to it all the way through just to appreciate how Roy’s prominent presence in the mix–he really gets a chance to shine here:
Bruce and the E Street Band worked on the song all summer long and as late as mid-October, eventually landing on the finished track that Bruce would release…. twenty-three years later.
That’s right: Bruce sat on the song for almost a quarter of a century before releasing it on his 2010 album, The Promise, a collection of songs recorded during the Darkness sessions but that didn’t make it to the album.
One listen to the song, and it’s obvious to see why “Talk to Me” didn’t make the Darkness cut. Like “Give the Girl a Kiss,” “I Wanna Be With You,” and “Ain’t Good Enough for You,” “Talk to Me” struck the wrong thematic chord. Bruce was writing and recording a number of light-hearted romantic (or anti-romantic) comedies, but ultimately he decided his next album would take a darker, more serious turn.
But that only explains why “Talk to Me” didn’t surface on the Darkness album; it doesn’t explain why it didn’t make The River (where it would have been right at home alongside songs like “Sherry Darling” and “I’m a Rocker”) or even the Tracks box set.
To answer that question, we need look no further than Bruce’s partner-in-crime in the Madrid clip above, Southside Johnny.
When Bruce realized “Talk to Me” wasn’t going to see the light of day on his next album, Bruce gave the song away to Southside, along with his blessing to feature it on his next album, the landmark Hearts of Stone (named after another song Bruce donated as the title track).
“Talk to Me” became the centerpiece of Hearts of Stone, as well as its lead single (although it failed to chart).
If that backing track sounds awfully similar to Bruce’s version, there are two good reasons for that: not only did Bruce gift the song itself to Southside, he also gave him the backing track from the E Street Band’s recording session.
The second reason: the horns you hear on Bruce’s version are members of Southside’s band, the Asbury Jukes. Since we don’t have a contemporary outtake from the Darkness sessions to compare it to, we don’t know whether the horns we hear on The Promise are original or added more recently prior to the album’s release, but either way there’s no debate that Southside’s 1978 track and Bruce’s 2010 track are musically very similar. (Steve Van Zandt even does double duty on backing vocals, shining on both versions, but particularly on Bruce’s.)
And that is most likely why Bruce waited so long to release his own version–out of respect for Southside’s wonderful performance and the lack of a reason to introduce his own version without something substantially different to bring to the table. The Promise was a double album of Darkness era outtakes, so it made sense to finally include it on that album.
With all this backstory, we haven’t even discussed the lyrics yet. Luckily, there actually aren’t that many of them. “Talk to Me” is more repetitive than one might realize at first listen, the song carried primarily by the power of its performance. And honestly, once you really listen to them, you might kind of wish you hadn’t. Because those comedy routines that Bruce likes to insert during the mid-song break–they’re meant to distract from rather than underline the song itself.
In its kindest interpretation, “Talk to Me” is a sad sack’s tale, a poor schmo’s romantic lament.
Well every night I see a light shine in your window
And every night you don’t answer when I come knocking at your door
Well your daddy won’t ever let me in
And I see from the street your silhouette sitting close to him
What must I do, what does it take, to get you to
Talk to me, until the night’s over
Little girl, won’t you talk to me, until the night’s over
I got a full week’s pay
And baby, I’ve been working hard each day
I’m not asking for the world, you see
I’m just asking, girl, talk to me
Let’s not dwell too long on the lyrics, though, lest we realize they are more than a little bit stalker-ish. Let’s be charitable and assume that this poor guy is just clueless enough not to get the message being sent to him by the object of his affection.
Maybe she’s tried to gently let him down. Maybe she’s told him not so gently. Maybe she’s just ignored him from the start. Regardless, he persists:
Well now late at night I hear the music softly playing
And late at night I see the two of you softly swaying
I don’t understand darling what was my sin
Why am I down here below, your arms are open to him
What did I do, what did I say, what must I pay, to get you to talk to me…
Okay, yeah, he’s a stalker.
And that strange emphasis on the money in his pocket, asking how much he must pay… that’s a little creepy, too. See why I cautioned against thinking about the lyrics?
Let’s just enjoy the song as a light-hearted romp and laugh at the goofy self-mocking skits. It’s better that way.
Bonus: if you want to hear a great Bruce and Southside team-up on “Talk to Me” minus the mid-song comedic break, take a listen to this fantastic holiday show performance from 2003.
Talk to Me
Recorded: July-October 1977
Released: The Promise (2010)
First performed: September 26, 1991 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: November 16, 2019 (Asbury Park, NJ)
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