“Hit! I wrote a hit last night!” –Bruce Springsteen to Roy Bittan, as told by Peter Ames Carlin
Well, not really, as it turns out.
Accounts vary as to the precise origin of “Roll of the Dice.” According to Peter Ames Carlin’s excellent biography, Roy Bittan recalls the inspiration stemming from a casual catch-up session between he and Bruce a few weeks after Bruce broke up the E Street Band. Roy demoed his new state-of-the-art synthesizer setup for Bruce and showed him how his rig could capture the classic E Street Band sound all on its own via an instrumental track he’d whipped up. Bruce was astounded at both the versatility of Roy’s setup and the track itself, and he insisted that Roy make him a tape of the track to take home with him.
Bruce remembers it a bit differently:
“Roy had some tracks that he’d play to me on occasion. So I called him and said, ‘Come on over, maybe I’ll try to write to some of your tracks.’ So he had the music to ‘Roll of the Dice,’ and I came up with the idea for that.” (Rolling Stone, August 6 1992)
Regardless, Roy’s riffing proved to be the key that unlocked the writer’s block that Bruce had been suffering from, and literally overnight, “Roll of the Dice” became the first song created for Bruce’s Human Touch album, and a few days later it became the first one recorded.
This was December 1989, though, and it be more than another two years before the song would see the light of day.
“At first, I had nothing to say. Throughout ’88 and ’89, every time I sat down to write, I was just sort of rehashing Tunnel of Love, except not as good. And it was all just down and nihilistic. It’s funny, because I think people probably associate my music with a lot of positives. But it’s like I really drift into that other thing–I think there’s been a lot of desperate fun in my songs.”
“Desperate fun” is as good a descriptor as any for “Roll of the Dice.”
Well I’ve been a losing gambler, yeah just throwing snake eyes
Oh love ain’t got me downhearted, I know up around the corner lies
My fool’s paradise in just another roll of the dice (oh yeah)
All my elevens and sevens been coming up sixes and nines (hmm yeah)
Since I fell for you baby I’m coming on changing times (oh yeah)
They’re waiting over the rise in just another roll of the dice
I’ve stumbled and I know I made my mistakes
Oh but tonight I’m gonna be playing for all of the stakes
Well it’s never too late so come on girl, the tables are waiting (oh yeah)
Oh you and me and Lady Luck well tonight we’ll be celebrating
Drinking champagne on ice in just another roll of the dice (ooh hoo hoo)
Whoa whoa whoa yeah
High-rollers, lay down your bets and I’ll raise ’em
Well I know the odds ain’t in my favor (oh no)
Maybe I’m just a clown throwing down looking to come up busted (oh no)
I’m a thief in the house of love and I can’t be trusted
Well I’ll be making my heist in just another roll of the dice
Just another roll of the dice
Truth be told, this isn’t Bruce at his lyrical best: Although there some genuinely clever turns of phrase (“my elevens and sevens been coming up sixes and nines” and “I’m a thief in the house of love and I can’t be trusted” are as good as any lines he’s ever written), he strains the gambling metaphor to its breaking point, there’s some awkward phrasing (“all of the stakes”) and a lazy rhyme in the bridge (“raise ’em” and “favor”).
But all that is more than made up for by the sheer joy and exuberance of Bruce’s vocal performance. The lyrics are secondary to the vocals, as odd as that reads. Listen to the track and you’ll hear what I mean: Bobby King’s call-and-response backing vocals more than match Bruce’s gusto, building to a coda that’s 40% of the entire song.”Roll of the Dice” is far, far from Bruce’s best song, but the last minute and 45 seconds of the song may rank among his best studio performances.
But while Bruce’s performance emphasizes the fun, if we pay attention to the lyrics we hear the desperation as well: our narrator is a serial Romeo who sees every relationship as a gamble. His track record ain’t great, and while it’s admirable that he never loses faith in himself, he kind of gives away the game in the first verse: he’s fallen for a girl who he knows will lead him to a “fool’s paradise” — or maybe it’s the other way around: he can’t be trusted in the house of love, after all.
In any case, he’s in a state of denial of the trouble that he actually confesses he’s aware lies ahead. He’s rolling the dice again, and he knows he’s going to lose–but that’s okay, because between here and there lies a lot of fun.
When Bruce performs “Roll of the Dice” in concert, that desperate fun translates well to the stage. Almost immediately, it became a centerpiece of his 1992-93 world tour, and if you listened carefully during the seven-minute(!) coda, you’d hear what in retrospect we can recognize as a startlingly honest admission, and the song changes meaning as a result. In the clip below (from the home video release of In Concert/MTV Plugged), Bruce almost seems to drop character along with the melody.
“Have you ever felt so empty inside, empty like you had nothing left… you’re unsure of yourself, like you weren’t sure who you were anymore… have you ever been so alone that all you wanted to do was hide, and when you reach down inside you can find nothing left inside. You’re unsure of all the things that you love.”
In 1992, after being out of the public eye for almost four years, a bout of writer’s block, the dissolution of his band, the search for a new voice, and the beginning of a family, that sounded more like a confession than shtick.
But it was also a way of recasting the gamble at the heart of the song as bravery rather than foolhardiness–that expending the effort required to forge a strong relationship can help save you from the most destructive parts of yourself. Or as he quoted in a 1993 television performance that never was (a story for another day), “everybody needs somebody.”
When Bruce wrote the lyrics for “Roll of the Dice” in December 1989, Patti was newly pregnant with their first child. When Bruce first performed it more than two years later, he was a married man with two children. That changed him, and it changed the song.
By the time Bruce reclaimed “Roll of the Dice” for the E Street Band late in the Reunion Tour, he had taken the song pretty far from its origins. Fun had taken the driver’s seat, and desperation got shoved to the back.
In recent years (and in keeping with the song), your best bet for hearing Bruce play “Roll of the Dice” live is to catch him in casino town–the song has made appearances in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and the Mohegan Sun casino.
But among the 120 performances of “Roll of the Dice” Bruce has given us over the years (90% of which were on the 1992-93 tour), two stand out as unique. Each is an acoustic performance that features tender vocals that strip away the narrator’s cockiness and reveal the vulnerability underneath.
The first is an electric piano performance from 2005:
…but my favorite is Bruce’s acoustic guitar performance from Hanover in 2013. I wasn’t there for it, but even on video it’s one of my favorite performances of any song from that tour.
“Roll of the Dice” remains a curiosity. Few fans would rank it among their favorite Springsteen songs, and yet there’s no denying the shot of fun-fueled adrenaline it injects into a show on the rare occasions Bruce performs it (in its original arrangement, at least).
But it holds the distinction of kickstarting a new era in Bruce’s career and captures the artist at a point were he’s only beginning to reconcile his internal emotional struggle, betting on himself and his partner, and allowing himself to love and be loved. For that, “Roll of the Dice” hold a special place in Bruce’s catalog.
Roll of the Dice
Recorded: December 1989
Released: Human Touch (1992)
First performed: May 6, 1992 (New York City, NY)
Last performed: February 16, 2017 (Brisbane, Australia)
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