Bruce’s recording sessions for what would become Born in the U.S.A. spanned more than two years. “Cover Me” (recorded in January, 1982) would end up as the earliest recorded song on the album; “Dancing in the Dark” would complete the album when it was recorded almost 25 months later.
By the halfway mark in early 1983, Bruce had already written, recorded, and assembled enough material to release as an album–and he came fairly close to doing so, under a working title of Murder Incorporated.
The track list is fascinating–it includes half of the songs that would eventually comprise Born in the U.S.A., but it also included a handful of very strong contenders that have become fan favorites since their eventual release on Greatest Hits and Tracks years later:
- Born in the U.S.A.
- Murder Incorporated
- Downbound Train
- Glory Days
- This Hard Land
- My Love Will Not Let You Down
- Johnny Bye Bye
- Frankie
- I’m Goin’ Down
- Working on the Highway
- I’m on Fire
What an album that would have been!
Bruce was so far along in planning the Murder Incorporated album, in fact, that he even had a handful of B-sides selected for the album’s first five singles. Those B-sides included two songs Bruce would eventually debut during the Born in the U.S.A. Tour (“Sugarland” and “Follow That Dream”), along with three others that still have yet to see the light of day: “Don’t Back Down,” “Little Girl (Like You),” and “One Love.”
When I wrote about “Little Girl (Like You)” last spring, I wasn’t very kind in my assessment. “One Love” is better (faint praise that may be), but it still suffers from an overly simple conceit, a lack of imagination, and Bruce’s newfound fascination with drum machines. Take a listen:
“One Love” doesn’t demand much in the way of lyrical analysis; Bruce never even dips a toe into metaphor.
One girl, one love
One dream in our heart
Two hearts as one
One hope, never to be torn apart
Yeah, come on baby, rock me the way I love
Shake me darling, shake me, don’t let me go
You’re the one, yeah, you’re the one for me
By the time we’ve finished that first verse, we pretty much get the idea: like the man says (here and elsewhere), two hearts are better than one. But just to make sure that we don’t miss the point, the song continues:
One dream, one dream
Is all, is all I need
One reason to believe
In you, I’ve found the thing I need
Once I was alone
So alone, so all alone
Then you came along
With a love you said I could call home
Come on baby, rock me all night long
I’ve been searching for you for so long
You’re the one, yeah, you’re the one for me
Perhaps Bruce worked on the song a bit more after recording the home demo above. Maybe we’ll find out if we ever get the long-rumored Born in the U.S.A. anniversary box set.
But as it stands now, the best we can say about “One Love” is that it’s a simple but earnest, bouncy love song that probably wouldn’t have stood the test of time had it been released as a B-side as intended back in the mid-eighties.
One Love
Recorded: January 19, 1983
Never released
Never performed
Looking for your favorite Bruce song? Check our full index. New entries every week!
