Sometimes you start with a title, and it leads you to a shoulda-been new wave classic.
After the Darkness Tour ended, Bruce spent much of the first half of 1979 in his home studio writing and working out new material that would eventually lead to The River. Bruce would often record himself at work using an ordinary cassette recorder, and some of those early cassettes somehow escaped into the wild. (One can but wonder how.)
One of those early escapees reveals Bruce working on a song called “Take ’em as They Come,” but it’s not the song we know from Tracks. In fact, it’s not even a song at all–there are barely any lyrics. (Don’t try to strain yourself understanding what Bruce is singing–when he’s working on a melody, he often just “bluffs” the lyrics, mumbling, scatting, or just throwing out lines in a stream of consciousness.)
But it’s clear that Bruce was enamored by the phrase “take ’em as they come”–it’s pretty much the only thing we can make out clearly and repeatedly.
From the melody in that clip above, it sounds like Bruce originally had something a bit more serious and pensive than what he eventually ended up with, but it didn’t last long. He soon moved on to a more upbeat melody–and while this one wouldn’t last either, it would soon find a home attached to a song that would make it onto The River.
We don’t know exactly when Bruce landed on the final arrangement for “Take ’em as They Come,” but we do know he recorded the backing track later that same year, in December 1979. His vocal, though, didn’t come until several months later, so it’s possible that Bruce was still experimenting and cross-pollinating during that time.
When Bruce finally did combine that infectious backing track with some dark lyrics and the hook he’d grown so attached to, the result was magic: “Take ’em as They Come” easily ranks among the very best of Bruce’s power pop catalog. Take a listen and hear for yourself:
That is one seriously fine pop song. No one would ever associate Bruce with new wave, but I can’t help but suspect that “Take ’em as They Come” would have been a radio smash had it been released on The River in late 1980. But it wasn’t to be–“Take ’em” spent almost two decades in the vault before Bruce finally released it on his Tracks compilation in 1998.
The released version has such a great hook and backing track, however, that you can listen to it countless times, sing along at the top of your lungs, dance to it without a care if you’re lucky enough to catch a rare outing in concert… and yet never once realize:
This is one dark song.
Seriously. Listen carefully to it. As Springsteen often does, this is a case of a bright pop melody that belies some somber lyrics and sinister imagery. We start in a dreamscape with two frightened lovers on the run, pursued by a threatening stranger:
Last night I dreamed we was running through the outlands
Tears streaming, your pretty face all a wreck
I held your daddy’s gun in my trembling hands
And down the highway another stranger comes
You gotta take ’em baby when they come
That line–“take ’em when they come”–it’s not the easygoing refrain it appears to be. It’s a battle cry–a declaration of intent to hold one’s ground, defend the one you love from any threat, and take them down before they take you. The chorus says they’ll take them as they come, but the verses make it clear that as really means when, and take means remove. It’s not a coincidence that the gun in his dream belongs to his lover’s father–our narrator has cast himself as the protector. And because it’s a dream, we can rest easy that it’s just symbolism.
Or can we? Our narrator’s awake now, ready to head out into the night. But his attitude’s the same–he’s ready for a fight. He expects one, in fact, and he encourages his girl to hide a switchblade in that best dress of hers:
Little girl put on your best dress
‘Cause we’re going out on the town tonight
Better bring along your switchblade
‘Cause for sure some fool’s gonna wanna fight
You’ve got to take ’em baby as they come
We’ll never learn his backstory, but this is a man who clearly sees life as a never-ending fight, and he believes he is justified for taking up the gauntlet. Whether his girl was with him from the start or joined him along the way, he’s grateful for his partner in crime and is doing his best to convince her that they’re on the right path, even if it’s a dark one:
But God save the rider in the black night
Save the man who taught that it was right
To do what they have done, girl
To become what we have become
You gotta take ’em baby when they come
He’s rationalizing, to be sure: If they’re going to survive, if they’re going to continue to live the life they’ve chosen, they’ve got to strike first–and it’s okay, because the law of the street says that’s the right thing to do.
The song takes a turn here, and we learn that our anti-hero isn’t reassuring his girl–he’s losing her.
Little girl, gone are the days
Faded away into a clear blue night
And all the vows that we made
Lie shattered and broken in the morning light
You gotta take ’em baby when they come
It’s possible to read that verse as an implication that these two are working through some kind of infidelity, but I think the vows Bruce refers to aren’t the ones they made to each other, but rather the ones they made together, as a couple, about the life they wanted to build for themselves.
This is not the life she wanted, though, and not the one he promised. It’s taking a toll on their bond, but he’s learning the wrong lesson from it. So desperate is he to protect her, to preserve her, that he doesn’t realize he’s the one causing the harm.
I know your heart is breaking
I can feel it too, girl
Though my finger on the trigger’s shaking
Here I swear to you, girl
Whether you read the song literally or metaphorically, what’s clear is that he truly views life as the two of them against the world, and when you truly live that way, you go down a dark and lonely road of isolation.
If I could take all your sorrow
So that you’d never cry, girl, or be blue
Come tomorrow, girl
What I’d do for you, little one
I swear I’ll take ’em baby when they come
That last line is as chilling as any in Springsteen’s catalog. What lengths will our anti-hero go to for his love? We can only shudder and wonder.
But we can’t end a discussion of “Take ’em as They Come” without mentioning the brilliant false ending: as the guitars fade, Max holds the beat–and holds, and holds, and holds–until the band finally returns and carries the song into the night. It’s more than a clever device–it underscores the narrator’s determination to never let his guard down, to always be on watch, to never stop moving.
It’s a brilliant ending to a powerful song.
Bruce reunited the E Street Band shortly after releasing his Tracks box set, and especially during the early legs of the tour, his outtake collection provided the E Street Band with a lot of new material to supplement their classics.
“Take ’em as They Come” was one of the earlier tracks to debut, coming out to play for the first time on June 15, 1999 in Offenbach. That first performance was just a bit too plodding, though.
The band would get better as time went by, but for reasons I can’t guess, Bruce all but retired the song after the Reunion Tour. He’s only played it twice since, once on the Rising Tour, and once almost a decade later on the Wrecking Ball Tour–thanks to a diligent, persistent, fan who absolutely refused to give up asking for it.
And that last time, at Hyde Park–they nailed it (even if Bruce truncated the false ending). Enjoy that performance (captured on video, no less) below.
Bonus: For years before the release of Tracks, a bootleg version of “Take ’em as They Come” circulated among collectors. It’s pretty close to the released version, but the last verse is different–more poetic, but also more ambiguous. Take a listen:
Take ’em as They Come
Recorded: December 5, 1979 (backing track), April 10, 1980 (vocals)
Released: Tracks (1998)
First performed: June 15, 1999 (Offenbach, Germany)
Last performed: July 14, 2012 (London, England)
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