Roll of the Dice: When You’re Alone

When Bruce gathered the E Street Band at the Expo Theater in Fort Monmouth to rehearse for their upcoming Tunnel of Love Express Tour, “When You’re Alone” was among the first songs they tackled.

But when the Express left the station, “When You’re Alone” was left… well, not quite alone (since “Valentine’s Day” didn’t make the final set list either), but pretty close to it.

With only a dozen outings since its release on Tunnel of Love 32 years ago (none of them on the original tour), “When You’re Alone” is one of the least-played songs from the album. Even when he does play it, Bruce always seems somewhat ambivalent toward it, never commenting on the meaning, context, or genesis of the song.

We’re left to our own devices to intuit the reasons for Bruce’s aversion to “When You’re Alone,” but I imagine most fans would arrive at a common hypothesis in pretty short order.

While we don’t know the exact recording date for “When You’re Alone,” I suspect it was one of the later songs to be written and laid down. Tunnel of Love started with songs that skirted the periphery of marriage; “Walk Like a Man” and “Spare Parts” were captured on the very first day of recording sessions in January 1987. When the album was completed in the early days of summer,  Bruce had zeroed in on the heart of relationships; “Tunnel of Love” was the last song recorded, with “One Step Up” shortly before it.

“When You’re Alone” sounds like it was written with the latter group, and if we’re to read anything into the arc of Bruce’s songwriting, it would appear that over the course of the first half of the year, the reality of his dissolving marriage to Julianne Phillips had begun to sink in.

But whereas “One Step Up” and the album’s title track made brilliant use of metaphor to make their point, “When You’re Alone” is stark, direct, and more than a little hard-hearted.

Uncharacteristically for Bruce, there’s not a trace of metaphor in “When You’re Alone,” which renders it an easy song to analyze: everything’s on the surface. This is the story of a jilted lover whose ex later returns to him, and his reception is not a kind one.

In the first verse, we meet our narrator. Johnny’s been dumped (quite a while ago, although we won’t realize that until the end of the song), not because he and his nameless girl didn’t love each other, but because they didn’t do the work demanded by successful long-term relationships.

Times were tough, and love was not enough
So you said, “Sorry Johnny I’m gone, gone, gone”
You said my act was funny but we both knew what was missing, honey
So you let out on your own
Now that pretty form that you’ve got, baby
Will make sure you get along
But you’re gonna find out someday, honey:

When you’re alone, you’re alone
When you’re alone, you’re alone
When you’re alone, you’re alone
When you’re alone, you ain’t nothing but alone

Young couples tend to realize quickly that successful marriages require more than attraction and love. Johnny leads us to believe that in his case, it wasn’t his fault–he was willing to stay, but she bailed. But there’s that line–“you said my act was funny, but we both knew what was missing”–that suggests that maybe Johnny wasn’t taking their issues seriously, either.

Either way, she left and Johnny’s a bit bitter about it, diminishing his ex by suggesting that the attractiveness of her body would carry her from one relationship to another, but only for so long. Eventually, she’d find herself without a partner, and when she did she’d realize what it’s like to be alone, without companionship, inspiration, and support. (Twenty years later, Bruce would level the same threat in “You’ll Be Comin’ Down,” which in substance is pretty much the same song as “When You’re Alone.”)

And that’s the cleverness of the chorus (the song’s only really admirable quality): the first “alone” refers to the state of being single, and the second refers to the state of being lonely.

In the second verse, Johnny lectures his ex. He’s already realized how having a partner helps us face the troubles life throws our way, because he’s lived enough to have learned it first-hand. She had to learn it on her own, too, and Johnny gets in an “I told you so.”

Now I was young and pretty on the mean streets of the city
And I fought to make ’em my home
With just the shirt on my back I left and swore I’d never look back
And man I was gone, gone, gone
But there’s things that’ll knock you down you don’t even see coming
And send you crawling like a baby back home
You’re gonna find out that day, sugar:

When you’re alone you’re alone
When you’re alone you’re alone
When you’re alone you’re alone
When you’re alone you ain’t nothing but alone

In the last verse, the past tense is important; it’s what tell us that what he’d always dreamt of has actually happened: his ex is on his doorstep, asking to be forgiven and taken back. But Johnny refuses, explaining (more than a bit disingenuously) that he’s not angry at her, he just doesn’t care (a statement that’s belied by the entire song up until this point).

I knew some day your running would be through and you’d think back on me and you
And your love would be strong
You’d forget all about the bad and think only of all the laughs that we had
And you’d wanna come home
Well, now it ain’t hard feelings or nothing, sugar
That ain’t what’s got me singing this song
It’s just nobody knows, honey, where love goes
But when it goes it’s gone, gone…

It’s always risky to read too much autobiography into an artist’s creation, and surely the individual songs on Tunnel of Love are more thematically than literally true.

Still, I can’t help but suspect that Bruce’s last line was an exercise in self-realization. Nobody knows where love goes, but when it goes, it’s gone. It doesn’t come back. That line lingers, and it’s loaded with hurt, spite, and fatalism.

Perhaps that’s why Bruce waited so long to perform “When You’re Alone” live. Or perhaps he’s just not fond of the way it translates to the stage. (His attempts in 1993 and 2005 were somewhat underwhelming.)

I’ve heard each of the dozen “When You’re Alone” performances Bruce has given over the years, and the only ones that sticks with me are his 1996 hometown performances in Freehold and Asbury Park, where Soozie accompanied him on violin and both Soozie and Patti supplied  backing vocals.

Even then, though, it’s only the music that’s warm–the lyrics are still icy. I suspect it’s not a song most fans would clamor to hear, and likely not one of the artist’s favorites either.

When You’re Alone
Recorded: January-April 1987
Released: Tunnel of Love (1987)
First performed: March 23, 1993 (Red Bank, NJ)
Last performed: October 20, 2005 (Worcester, MA)

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