Roll of the Dice: Dollhouse

I’ll admit it: “Dollhouse” is one of my guilty pleasures.

Rarely requested or even (I suspect) remembered, this 1979 outtake from The River is power pop perfection–not because of the lyrics (which are perfectly satisfactory), though.

What makes “Dollhouse” so tubular is its backing track, featuring the E Street Band at their new waviest.

Whether we’re focusing on the music or the lyrics, the first thing we have to acknowledge about “Dollhouse” is its conceit.

Not content to simply rely on his lyrics to carry the metaphor, Bruce somehow manages to imagine–and more importantly, pull off–the transformation of the mighty E Street Band into a music box soundtrack through the prominent infusion of Danny Federici’s glockenspiel in the song’s introduction and final minute.

It’s an inspired idea, and it works so well that I can’t help but laugh out loud every time I hear Danny re-enter the scene.

If Danny’s the gimmick, though, Garry Tallent is the hero–he is all over “Dollhouse”  from the opening bars all the way through the song, showing off in a way he’s rarely allowed to.

The entire E Street Band is as tight during these three and a half minutes as we’ll ever hear them; if “Dollhouse” was only an instrumental track it would still rank among my favorites.

But “Dollhouse” has lyrics, too, so let’s check them out.

Ever since you were a little girl
You set the rules in your little world
But girls grow up and throw their toys away
You’re a big girl now, but you still wanna play

(Girl we’re living) You dress them up the way you want to
(Girl we’re living) You make them do just what you want them to do
(Girl we’re living) Once I thought we had a love that was true
(Girl we’re living, living, living, living) But I’m just another doll in your dollhouse to you
We’re living in a dollhouse
Oh we’re living in a dollhouse
Girl, we’re living in a dollhouse
You may feel safe and sound but your dollhouse, girl, is falling down

“Dollhouse” is one of Bruce’s earlier relationship songs–if we can label it as such, because this is not a very healthy relationship.

This is a love affair gone south, and our narrator harbors some resentment toward his significant other for manipulating him (or possibly towards himself for his complicity). He feels like a toy, a doll, a plaything–certainly not an equal or a partner.

Bruce never lets go of the metaphor throughout the entire song. It’s clear that our narrator is bitter and has at least one foot out the door.  (Notably, he hasn’t left yet, though–the song is written in the present tense.)

It’s all been neatly arranged in your mind
Every detail fits your own design
Every room is perfectly in place
But I can see the sadness, baby, on your face

(Girl we’re living) You had a plan and darling like a child
(Girl we’re living) You thought it’s down to fashion, down to style
(Girl we’re living) But your little dream house is running wild
(Girl we’re living, living, living, living) Before your very eyes we’re shrinking down to size
We’re living in a dollhouse
Oh we’re living in a dollhouse
Girl, we’re living in a dollhouse
We may feel safe and sound
But our dollhouse, girl, is falling down

In the second verse, Bruce sneaks in a crucial piece of information–the girl isn’t happy, either. That new fact–plus the “baby” that accompanies and softens it–tempers the bitterness of the first verse with a modicum of sympathy.

Also notice how the last line of the chorus switches from “your dollhouse” to “our dollhouse,” implying that our narrator is still trying to save the relationship.

Everything’s as you dreamed it would be
But there’s something wrong that you can’t see
Room by room you’re looking for some little flaw
A crack somewhere in your dollhouse wall

(Girl we’re living) Something, girl, that will explain away
(Girl we’re living) The hurt you feel, darling, when we play
(Girl we’re living) Your little dolls they got a grip on you
(Girl we’re living) Your little dolls they got a grip on you
(Girl we’re living) Your little dolls they got a grip on you
(Girl we’re living, living, living, living) Until you’re just another doll in your dollhouse too
We’re living in a dollhouse
Oh we’re living in a dollhouse
Girl, we’re living in a dollhouse
We may feel safe and sound
But our dollhouse, girl, is falling down

If we’re looking for a key line in “Dollhouse,” we’ll find it in the warning Bruce makes in the third verse: Your little dolls they got a grip on you, until you’re just another doll in your dollhouse, too. If you have to control the people in your life, if you have to set the terms of your interactions and relationships, then you’re essentially just an actor in a play, a doll’s tea party.

There’s no resolution in “Dollhouse”–just a warning that Rome is burning. What happens next is left to our imaginations, but the prominent music box in the coda tells us that the fire is likely to rage on.

Bruce has steered clear of “Dollhouse” in concert. He attempted it only once, early on the Reunion Tour in Vienna, but the recently reunited E Street Band couldn’t recapture the ferocity and alchemy of the studio track.

We haven’t heard from “Dollhouse” since that night over twenty years ago, and it strikes me as a longshot to ever surface in Bruce’s set lists again. But that’s okay–it’s rare for one of Bruce’s songs to be perfectly captured in a studio recording, but “Dollhouse” is one of those cases that likely can’t be improved on stage.

Bonus:

Even before “Dollhouse” was finally released (almost 20 years after it was recorded) on Bruce’s 1998 box set, Tracks, a couple of acoustic, work-in-progress home demos escaped into the wild. You can listen to them below. While there are many lyrical differences, they are for the most part exceedingly minor–reordering and rephrasing for better meter and effect.

But there’s one new section that stands out for those of us familiar with the studio version:

You got your dolls with your pretty lace and frills
You just can’t hold your little red pills
You need to keep your fears safe and sound
I’d like to burn your dollhouse down

Not only did that excised verse break the song’s spell by abandoning the metaphor in the second line, that last line tips the narrator into unsympathetic terrain. Both are likely reasons for the verse being ultimately discarded.

Dollhouse
Recorded: August 20-21, 1979
Released: Tracks (1998); The Ties That Bind (2015)
First performed: April 24, 1999 (Vienna, Austria)
Last performed: April 25, 1999 (Vienna, Austria)

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