Roll of the Dice: There Will Never Be Any Other For Me But You

If you’ve ever wondered what the touring life of an acoustic solo artist is like, you might get a pretty good idea from a suite of under-the-radar songs that Bruce Springsteen wrote and performed while on the road during the Ghost of Tom Joad tour.

Bruce’s first-ever acoustic tour was dark. Like, seriously somber. On his next solo go-around, for his 2005 Devils & Dust album, he’d figure out the right balance of gravity and levity, but on this first marathon tour (it was one of Bruce’s longest ever, 128 shows between 1995 and 1997), Bruce’s setlists taxed the emotional stamina of even his most devoted fans.

Maybe that’s why he started debuting some lighthearted new songs just a few months into the tour. It certainly wasn’t the first time Bruce tried out new songs on the road before recording them in the studio–he’s done that since his very first albums.

But something was different about this particular group of songs. They were melodically simple and lyrically light. They didn’t sound like anything Bruce would ever commit to vinyl; in fact, they sounded for all the world like Bruce had written them the night before.

He very well may have. His first couple of new songs, “It’s the Little Things That Count” and “Pilgrim in the Temple of Love,” sound like the late-night fantasizing a married man on the road might entertain himself with in his hotel room.

But as the tour wore on, it seemed like Bruce grew bored: “Sell It and They Will Come” is little more than the musings of a night owl with nothing to do other than watch television, and its follow-up sounds almost like a sequel. At least at first. Because if we listen closely, even these seemingly dashed-off ditties contain some surprisingly deep insights.

“There Will Never Be Any Other for Me But You” was a work-in-progress throughout its short life (34 performances across eight months); Bruce would often name check whatever celebrities were in the gossip columns that week, and his phrasing would vary from night to night–making it a bit challenging to analyze the lyrics.

But let’s give it a shot anyway.

Princess Di may find another man
Prince Charles may want to live his life as a tampon in another woman’s underpants
I know what he feels like, I’ve been there too
But there will never be any other for me but you

If that first couplet has you scratching your head, you probably weren’t of an age to pay attention to the gossip columns in 1993. Suffice it to say that the royal prince had been captured on tape confessing to his paramour his wish to be reincarnated as… well, google “tampongate” if you want to learn more.

Why this was still on Bruce’s mind three years later, I can’t explain. But while it’s the first two lines of the verse that capture our attention, it’s the second two that make it personal. Especially at that point in time, Bruce was careful to never comment on or refer to the dissolution of his previous marriage. To hear him do so here with such casual levity is almost shocking, but Bruce deftly and quickly pivots from confession to pledge of eternal fidelity to his new love. In fact, Bruce employs this device throughout the song–he uses comedy and celebrity in the first half of each verse to draw our attention away from the personal confessions that conclude them.

Let’s move on to the second verse, which at least was current at the time:

Will Elizabeth Taylor get married again, buddy, that’s the question
Poor Larry Fortensky got busted on his Harley for illegal weapons possession
I’ve been that down, I’ve been that crazy, I’ve been that much of a fool
But there will never be any other for me but you

Elizabeth Taylor was in the sunset of her career in 1996, but her romantic entanglements still made the news. Larry Fortensky was her eighth husband, but not for long, it seemed–he’d recently been arrested for illegal weapons and substance possession while in the company of another woman. Again, another example of the extremes one may go to when trapped in the wrong relationship.

A love that’s real is a love that’s hard
Like a pit bull on your ass in a very small backyard
A love that’s hard can be a love that’s true
But there will never be any other for me but you

Despite the crass metaphor, that bridge actually contains surprisingly deep and true insight for a man who’d only been (re-)married for about five years at that point. The notion that a relationship can be both challenging and natural at the same time is a realization many of us come to over a much longer period of time.

Sean and Madonna, Donald and Ivana
They said they’d have a love that would forever and ever be true
Once I said those words… I meant ’em, too
But there will never be any other for me but you

Bruce actually swapped famous names in and out for that verse. Depending on the night and the mood, he might name check Elvis and Priscilla, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, or “your name here” and Madonna. (He’d change up the second line too, in order to rhyme with whoever he decided to “honor” that night.)

But again, the key is in those final lines. Beneath the salacious headlines, Bruce is saying, I know I’ve been with someone else before, and yes, I thought it was real and lasting. But now I know the difference, and this time I know I have it right.

Hearing the song for the first time in concert, did his fans understand the true message of the song? Probably not. But I doubt we were his intended audience, anyway.

There Will Never Be Any Other for Me But You
Never recorded
Never released
First performed: September 19, 1996 (Providence, RI)
Last performed: May 10, 1997 (Warsaw, Poland)

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