Here’s another diamond in the rough from Bruce’s home studio recording sessions in early 1983: a short, tight lament called “Seven Tears.”
In Bruce’s typical “I had a job, I had a girl” fashion (in fact, the first two verses foreshadow two songs that would end up on his next album–“Downbound Train,” and the title track, “Born in the U.S.A.“), Bruce neatly and efficiently lays out the story of a man who had it all and lost it all–and now he memorializes his seven years of happiness with a facial tattoo of seven tears as a mark of his everlasting sadness.
I had a wife, I had a child
I had a home up on a hill
Had a good life for seven years
Now all I’ve got is seven tears
Went down to see my gypsy man
He said, “Now son, I understand”
When I said, “I want one for every year”
He tattooed on my face these seven tears
Oh seven tears, oh seven tears
I want one for every happy year
My baby’s gone, she’s gone, gone, gone
And I’ll cry forever ever on
When I walk out into the lights of town
People see me coming and they gather round
They wanna know how I ended up here
With this tattoo on my face of seven tears
Oh seven tears, oh seven tears
I want one for every happy year
My baby’s gone, she’s gone, gone, gone
And I’ll cry forever ever on
By showing his sorrow on the outside, he prompts the people he encounters to ask him what’s behind it. And that’s precisely by design: our narrator’s punishment is his penitence. Unable to forgive himself or move on, he ensures that he’s forced to relive his love and retell his loss every day.
Musically, Bruce slowed and recycled the melody he used for “Little Girl Like You” a few weeks earlier. Lyrically, however, “Seven Tears” is a masterful example of economy in songwriting. Both “Little Girl Like You” and “Seven Tears” are about ninety seconds long, but whereas the former is a lazy trifle, the latter is a complete tale with an emotional wallop.
It deserves its official release on L.A. Garage Sessions ’83.
Seven Tears
Recorded: February 15, 1983
Released: L.A. Garage Sessions ’83 (2025), Lost and Found (2025)
Never performed
© March 17, 2019 / December 12, 2025
