Bruce was in a reggae mood during the autumn of 1979.
Although this was the period when Bruce was writing and recording rockers that would eventually find a home on The River, he also tinkered with a few island-inspired songs, most of which never made it passed the home demo stage.
We’ve covered some of them on this blog before: “You Gotta Be Kind,” for example, or “Mr. Outside” (which did finally see the light of day 36 years later).
Here’s another one:
In content, “You Gotta Fight (For What You Want)” feels like a precursor to “Two Hearts,” and given the time frame in which they were both recorded (the former in the autumn of 1979, the latter just a few months later in February, 1980), it’s quite possible that “You Gotta Fight” did indeed give rise to the classic track from The River.
Some of the lyrics are bluffed, but most of them are complete–certainly enough for us to tell that “You Gotta Fight (For What You Want)” is very much a platonic pep talk in the “Two Hearts” vein.
Little girl in these changing times
You got to move on or be left behind
Every day is a battle within
And you say the future looks so dim
??? and if you get it right
???
Well you just got to fight for what you want
You got to fight for what you want
You got to fight for what you want
For what you want
When you get to know the future, baby
Every guy leaves you so confused
Got to choose which way to turn
And you got to ???
Oh yeah, you get ??? alright, all night
???
You ride away that storm
Remember that
You got to fight for what you want
Regardless of whether one song led to the other or if they were both contemporaries, it’s easy to see why Bruce would have abandoned “You Gotta Fight (For What You Want)” and opted to record “Two Hearts” instead.
The earlier song comes off like mansplaining (even if that wasn’t a term or a notion at the time), with none of the empathy that softens “Two Hearts” and invests its narrator with legitimate life experience to impart.
Still, “You Gotta Fight (For What You Want)” provides insight into the influences and themes that would before long inform The River.
You Gotta Fight (For What You Want)
Recorded: Late 1979 (demo)
Never released
Never performed
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