Roll of the Dice: The Man Who Got Away

How good is the River sessions outtake, “The Man Who Got Away?”

So good that at one point Bruce had it slated for the album, back when it was slated to be only a single disc and before the eventual title track had even been written.

But until it was released on the 2015 box set The Ties That Bind: The River Collection, it was the only song from that particular album sequence that hadn’t yet seen the light of day.

And that’s too bad, because “The Man Who Got Away” is an absolutely fantastic song, three-and-a-half minutes of taut rock storytelling accompanied by a tight E Street Band.

Often compared to “Be True,” its sibling outtake, because of its Hollywood imagery, the two songs couldn’t be more different. “Be True” ranks among Bruce’s best romantic pop songs, but in a different arrangement, “The Man Who Got Away” would have been at home on Nebraska.

“The Man Who Got Away” is one big fake-out: we think we know what the song is about as Bruce unreels the first verse–it seems like we’re listening to one of Bruce’s trademarked ordinary working Joes engaging in a bit of Hollywood escapism.

Last night I went to the Coronado
I bought my ticket and I found my seat
It was a new adventure straight from Hollywood
Lights went down as I felt the heat

They went tearing from the final scene
Burning rubber, spilling gasoline
As the credits rolled away
They were still chasing the man who got away

But we quickly learn that this particular escapism may be just as much literal as it is metaphorical:

Well, every night for weeks and weeks now
I beat the traffic, I beat the heat now
For two hours I can believe now
The man who got away was me

I went tearing from the final scene
Burning rubber, spilling gasoline
As the credits rolled away
They were still chasing the man who got away

Bruce is particularly clever here: on first listen, it’s likely that we hear that “I beat the traffic, I beat the heat” as a reference to an evening commute during an oppressive summer, and that the air-conditioned theater offered a temporary respite.

But we’re about to learn that “traffic” and “heat” refers to the police out searching for our anti-hero:

Drove into Stockton, my radio went dead
That’s when I heard what the newsman said
Said, “armed robbery on the ten-hundred block”
Was two men involved and one man shot
Well, while his accomplice made the payday
With a 45 he blew the cashier away 
Last seen headed on the State Highway
Driving a late model Chevrolet”

Whoa! We didn’t see that twist coming the first time we heard this song, did we? Our narrator is literally on the lam, dodging the police officers and staying one step ahead of the APB out for his arrest.

And that chorus–we get one more go-round to drive the point home: perhaps the hail of bullets and flaming gasoline is a bit of action movie grandeur infusing his recollection, but his life-on-the-run is real, with no hint of safety in the near future.

I went screaming from the final scene
In a hail of bullets and flaming gasoline
As the credits rolled away
They were still chasing the man who got away

Why in the world didn’t Bruce include this terrific song on The River? I can’t answer that one. It should have been on it, and we should have had at least one live performance of along the way.

But other than its under-the-radar official release in the anniversary box set, “The Man Who Got Away” continues to be a great song that got away, too.

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Bonus #1: Here’s an inside look at Bruce working on an early acoustic version of “The Man Who Got Away.” The lyrics are very different–the song would evolve considerably before Bruce brought it to the band.

Bonus #2: Although it took more than 35 years for us to get an official release of “The Man Who Got Away,” we did get a glimpse of it much, much earlier when a recording of an E Street Band rehearsal escaped into the wild. Take a listen to that full run-through of “The Man Who Got Away,” followed by Bruce listening to the recording and practicing his harmonies.

The Man Who Got Away
Recorded: June 13-July 5, 1979
Released: The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (2015)
Never performed

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