Roll of the Dice: You Mean So Much to Me

If you want to trace the rapid evolution in Bruce’s sound during the first half of the 1970s, there’s no better case study than his lost original, “You Mean So Much to Me.”

Readers of this blog know by now that Bruce was just as prolific a songwriter prior to his first album as he’s been since–but that first album tends to be a demarcation: there’s the stuff that came before Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and the stuff the came after, and once Bruce started touring behind his album, his pre-label Steel Mill and Bruce Springsteen Band material rarely received any outings.

“You Mean So Much to Me” is an exception. Not only did it survive into the E Street Band era, it survived far into it. We have recordings of Bruce performing it as late as 1977 (although one could fairly call his ’77 performances essentially covers of a Southside Johnny song–by that time Southside and Ronnie Spector had recorded it and were performing it regularly–but that’s a story for another day).

What’s most fascinating about “You Mean So Much to Me,” however, isn’t just that it bridged the gap between Bruce’s bands, but that it evolved in the process, absorbing and reflecting the sound of the musicians playing it.

Take a listen to one of its earliest outings, from a Bruce Springsteen Band concert at Damrosch Park in New York City:

There’s a lot to take in here.

What we notice first (besides the absolutely stunning recording and performance quality–the entire show ranks among my very favorite Springsteen bootlegs of all time) is the brassy, jazzy sound of the band. This is an  archetypal Bruce Springsteen Band performance, and anyone who was there for it couldn’t possibly have been surprised when Bruce periodically added a horn section to his band in virtually every decade that followed. With a prominent trumpet and female backing singers in the mix, it’s easy to connect the dots from the 1971 Bruce Springsteen Band to the 2012 Wrecking Ball-era E Street Band.

We also notice that this arrangement of “You Mean So Much to Me” carries DNA traces of songs that Bruce would introduce not long after: the melody on the verses would soon be transferred to “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street,” and elements of the guitar hero showcase (a holdover Steel Mill tradition) would make its way over to “Thundercrack.”

The Bruce Springsteen Band played this arrangement several times that summer of 1971 and then (as far as we know–set lists and recordings are scarce from this time) put the song away for the rest of the band’s short existence.

The next time “You Mean So Much to Me” popped up was during a May 1973 radio appearance (only Bruce’s second-ever) in Richmond. Greetings from Asbury Park had been on record store shelves for over four months by that point, but curiously Bruce’s acoustic set featured just as many works in progress for his next album as it did tracks from his current album.

Bruce finished his set with a lovely rendition of “You Mean So Much to Me.” Supported by Danny on accordion and Clarence on sax (David Sancious is in the room but has not yet joined the band), the performance appears to be prompted by Bruce’s whim, but with set lists from contemporary shows so scarce, it’s hard to know whether they’d worked it up or not.

We do know that the song made several appearances throughout the summer and fall of 1973 and into the winter of 1974. In fact, it shows up on a significant percentage of known set lists from that period, so it’s quite possible the song was more common than surviving records attest.

In any case, their acoustic arrangement is tender and warm and Bruce’s vocals are pure, allowing for the romance in Bruce’s lyrics to shine through more passionately than in the original Bruce Springsteen Band’s arrangement.

By January 1974, “You Mean So Much to Me” had evolved into a showcase for Bruce’s unnamed band (They were still months away from E Street.) The clip below (which is mis-attributed in its captioning–it actually hails from Bruce’s January 29th show in Nashville) captures the band’s final known performance of the song (other than a few guest appearances at Southside Johnny shows), and it’s a marvel.

It’s easy to forget how much the E Street Band’s sound has changed since their early days, but this track is a fantastic reminder: every band member gets a spotlight, but Danny Federici and David Sancious own most of the song–their loose, jazzy interplay anchors Bruce and the band throughout. And as for Bruce, seldom are we fortunate enough to have an arrangement sparse enough to let his guitar skills shine through as well as they do here. At the time, Bruce had a reputation as a smoking hot guitar player, and it’s easy to hear why.

By this point, you might have noticed that I’ve been focusing on the musicality of “You Mean So Much to Me,” rather than its poetry. That’s not an accident. Lyrically, there’s not a lot here to either admire or dismiss–only two verses and a chorus for a song that approached ten minutes when performed live.

Well she comes to me like a childhood song
Or an old time friend I ain’t seen in so long
When she sings to me she’s like a robin’s song
She can be so sweet, she won’t do me no wrong

You mean so much to me baby
You know you drive me crazy
You mean so much to me baby
I want you for my girl

Well sometimes she’s like a baby playing with a toy
Then she’s so much woman she makes me feel like a little boy
And when she comes to me, and she’s all alone
She cries “Oh daddy, oh daddy make me strong”

Yeah… this isn’t exactly Bruce at his lyrical best, but it’s fairly typical of his early (pre-1972) attempts at writing love songs. The lyrics are basically there for the band to hang their performance on, and that’s probably why Bruce retired the song for good shortly thereafter; he’d already introduced some much stronger material to his catalog and the band didn’t want for substantive songs to sink their teeth into.

Bruce didn’t forget about “You Mean So Much to Me” altogether, though: in February 1976, Bruce met Ronnie Spector when she visited the Record Plant during the recording sessions for Southside Johnny’s debut album, and inspiration struck.

Look for that story coming soon.

You Mean So Much to Me
Never recorded
Never released
First performed: July 10, 1971 (Lincroft, NJ)
Last performed: May 13, 1977 (Red Bank, NJ)

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