Roll of the Dice: Brothers Under the Bridges (’83)

Bruce wrote, recorded, and released (eventually) two songs that share virtually the same title, and almost every scholarly Springsteen resource I’ve seen states that there’s no relationship between the two.

But I don’t believe that.

An attentive listen reveals that the two songs are linked by far more than their title–they also have the same narrator and serve as prequel/sequel.

The later song is the better known of the two: “Brothers Under the Bridge” was recorded in 1995 and explores the plight of returning Vietnam vets; we’ll delve into it someday when the dice direct me to write about it. Bruce performed it regularly during his Ghost of Tom Joad solo acoustic tour.

The earlier song is considerably more obscure. Although both were released on Bruce’s 1998 Tracks compilation years after they were originally recorded, “Brothers Under the Bridges” (note the plural), unlike its younger sibling, has never been performed live.

Recorded during the Born in the U.S.A. sessions, “Brothers Under the Bridges” features the E Street Band at the height of their powers, with a particularly strong sax solo from Clarence Clemons. (Oh, how I wish he’d had a chance to play it live.) It also bears more than a passing resemblance to another Born in the U.S.A. track, which may explain why it was left off the album.

Let’s take a listen:

You probably heard echoes of “No Surrender” in the “li li li” chorus, and the lyrics have the same wistful yearning of youth for independence. That’s probably not an accident. “Brothers Under the Bridges” was recorded between mid-September and early October of 1983; “No Surrender” was recorded just before Halloween.

Some have speculated that “Brothers Under the Bridges” should be considered an early prototype of “No Surrender,” but I don’t subscribe to that theory. Bruce has often worked on similar songs in parallel–sometimes instead of choosing between two paths for a song, he chooses both. I think this is one of those instances. Still, it wouldn’t have made sense to put both songs on the album, and it’s hard to argue that Bruce didn’t make the right choice.

And yet this is a terrific song.

Barreling out of the gate on the backs of Clarence and Max, the backing track bristles with the energy, vitality, and verve of youth, even as the lyrics bemoan the sad state of being young and car-less.

That’s pretty much what the song is about–to a casual listener, at least: the frustration of being just shy of driving age (that whine of frustration around the twenty-second mark gets me every time), of watching from a distance as the older boys and girls experience their first taste of freedom. The narrator of “Brothers Under the Bridges” doesn’t even have time to envy the older kids–he’s too busy living vicariously through them.

Every spring when the weather gets warm
They come pourin’ into town straight off of them farms
Driving 455s running hard and strong
They’d scratch built in ‘ them tool sheds all winter long
‘Neath the trestles drinkin’ the beer and the wine
Now some came to run, some just to pass the time
With the brothers under the bridges

Notice the detail Bruce packs into that verse: I don’t even know what a 455 engine is, and I suspect a typical fourteen-year-old wouldn’t either. But Bruce deliberately adds that detail to subtly illustrate just how obsessed the narrator is with cars and freedom, despite being too young to enjoy them.

Also notice how the narrator is equally taken by the scene of the older kids gathering, drinking, and hanging out under the bridges. To him, a car represents not just freedom but entry into what he sees as a fraternity–a brotherhood (no accident that Bruce refers to them as “brothers”) into which he’s denied entry. And it torments him:

Me and Tommy we was just fourteen, didn’t have our licenses yet
Our walls were covered with pictures of the cars we’d get
We’d listen and wait for that highway to rumble and quake
As they drove in through town when the weekend’d break
??? girls with that distant look in their eyes
Now together ‘neath the trestles they’d be laughing in the night
With the brothers under the bridges

If our young hero can’t join the brotherhood, though, he’ll at least watch them–watch and dream of the day when he can be one of them:

Well now, me and my brother’d hitched a ride in Joey’s pickup to the edge of town
And we’d watch from the tall grass as the challenges were made and the duels went down
We’d hitchhike back home, sneak in, get in bed before my mom’d come
And we’d lay there in the night talkin’ about how we might someday be one
Yeah someday run with the brothers under the bridges

Again, Bruce’s lyrics feature some very nice, subtle detail–this is Bruce at peak songwriting skill. Every line in that bridge rubs salt in the wound–the ignominy of having to hitch a ride because he’s too young to drive; hiding in the tall grass (implying the narrator is small by comparison); having to sneak in to his house because he was out after curfew.

And as Bruce and his brother share their dreams with the night, Clarence paints a scene of tantalizing freedom almost within arm’s reach, as only Clarence could. But as the E Street Band explodes into the final verse, though, we learn that while adulthood may bring freedom, it may come at a cost.

Bruce is careful–so careful–in the final verse to foreshadow the future without outright defining it. In fact, it’s quite likely that we’ve already time-traveled: this narrator sounds older and more thoughtful than the one we’ve been listening to.

Well now I hear a cry in the distance and the sound of marching feet come and gone
Well I’m sittin’ down here by this highway figuring, figuring just where I belong
Tonight from up here on Signal Hill I watch a young man in a red shirt walking through a night so still
Put his jacket ’round his girl as the autumn wind sends a chill
Through the brothers under the bridges

The cry in the distance, the deliberate word choice of “marching” and the chill in the air all create a sense of foreboding and imply that the narrator is nearing adulthood and the age at which he is eligible for the draft. Star Trek fans might be tempted to read into that “red shirt” detail as well, but Bruce is using the red shirt to establish the young man as a college freshman and therefore exempt from the draft–foreshadowing the song’s sequel. (Thanks to reader Philip J. Ruggiero for the connection.)

The song doesn’t have any detail that would firmly establish it in a particular place or time, but it’s not hard to imagine that the brothers who congregated under the bridges have been sent off to fight in distant lands.

This older (wiser?) narrator is still by the highway, but it’s no longer the cars that catch his eye. The night is still and quiet, his path uncertain, and his attention drawn to more adult concerns and relationships.

The last line of the song implies that our hero has finally joined the brotherhood–and he’s beginning to suspect that the secrets they share are not as romantic as his younger self imagined. In a dozen years, Bruce would revisit our young hero and his brotherhood and show us just how prescient that last verse was.

To be continued in Roll of the Dice: Brothers Under the Bridge 

Brothers Under the Bridges
Recorded: September 14 – October 10, 1983
Released: Tracks (1998)
Never performed

Looking for your favorite Bruce song? Check our full index. New entries every week!