Roll of the Dice: Be True

The first thing to know about “Be True” is that it began as a completely different song that shares almost exactly the same lyrics.

I covered the backstory for “Mary Lou” (older sister to “Be True”) at length a couple of years ago; there are so many surviving early acoustic demos and band rehearsal drafts that it makes for a highly illuminating look at how Bruce develops a song. I highly recommend reading (or re-reading) it before going any further if you want to fully appreciate the origin of its younger sibling.

The next thing to know about “Be True” is that there are two different officially released studio versions, something many fans don’t realize.  Compare the more well-known version from Tracks below…

…with the version released in 2015 on The River: Single Disc (included in The Ties That Bind: The River Collection).

See what I mean? The core recording is the same for both, but there are differences both subtle and glaring. The 2015 version runs ever so slightly slower, for example, with Roy’s piano significantly higher in the mix and Max’s drum much lower.

In the song’s final minute, however, the differences are more obvious: while the same sax solo appears in both versions, it enters a few measures later in the second version than in the first. And most noticeable of all: Bruce sings an entirely different coda in each version.

Thankfully, both versions give proper due to Danny Federici’s glockenspiel, which is clearly the most important musical element of “Be True”–it’s what gives the song it’s bright, poppy feel.

I’ll leave it to you to decide which version’s better. (I have a slight preference for the latter one.)

The third thing to know about “Be True” is that it’s not a love song. Or at least, not in the romantic sense that its title and set list placement on the Tunnel of Love Tour might lead you to think it is.

“Be True” is a self-love song, very much in the sense that “Two Hearts” is. In fact, I suspect that the inclusion of “Two Hearts” on The River is the reason for the omission of “Be True,” which for a while in the summer of ’79 was thought to be a lock.

The last line of of “Be True” is “be true to me, and I’ll be true to you,” but what Bruce’s character is really saying is: Be your authentic self with me, and I’ll be mine with you. Bruce acknowledged this in a 1999 interview with Mark Hagen in Mojo.

“He’s trying to say, ‘Hey don’t sell yourself cheap.’ It’s saying: be true to yourself in some fashion. He’s talking to a woman he’s interested in, but actually that’s a device to address just how do you find yourself through the falseness of some of those things and not sell yourself short and try to get the most out of yourself. 

So with that lens in mind, let’s move on to my long-promised lyrical analysis and “Mary Lou” comparison. (I didn’t realize at the time that it would take nineteen months for the dice to turn up the concluding chapter of the “Mary Lou”/”Little White Lies“/”Be True” trilogy. Sorry about that.)

Both songs share the same gimmick: the use of Hollywood vocabulary and iconography as a metaphor for living a romanticized life rather than a real one. The battle between romanticism and realism is a pervasive theme throughout Bruce’s early work, but perhaps nowhere more overtly than here.

Our off-screen heroine imagines herself as the leading lady in a major motion picture, and we’re led to believe she lives her life that way–forcing herself and her relationships to fit her big-screen expectations. Our narrator is just the latest in a long line of suitors, and while his interest appears to be genuine, he’s not willing to play her game.

Your scrapbook’s filled with pictures of all your leading men
Well baby don’t put my picture in there with them
Don’t make us some little girl’s dream that can’t ever come true
That only serves to hurt and make you cry like you do
Well baby don’t do it to me and I won’t do it to you

To be sure, there’s at least a trace of self-interest at work: if he can lower her expectations, maybe he’ll have a chance of actually meeting them. But as the song progresses, we sense that he’s more focused on helping her be true to and satisfied with herself, so she can be happy in love with anyone, even if he ends up not being the one.

Our narrator makes her a promise and demands one in return: let’s be our true selves with each other. If we work, we work–and we know it’s because we accept each other and ourselves. If not… well, then better we find out now than live with masks on.

The second verse continues the movie metaphor, but the key exchange comes at the end of the verse:

You see all the romantic movies, you dream and take the boys home
But when the action fades you’re left all alone
You deserve better than this, little girl can’t you see you do
Do you need somebody to prove it to you
Well baby you prove it to me and I’ll prove it to you

It’s not uncommon for lovers to tell each other how wonderful they are, but how many force the other person to not only acknowledge it but also prove that they believe it? That’s the crux of the middle verse of “Be True” — you deserve better than this, but you need to prove to me that you understand that and believe it. If you do, I’ll show you what better looks like. If you don’t—well, the implication is that the relationship would be doomed.

Our narrator drives his point home bluntly in the bridge:

Now every night you go out looking for true love’s satisfaction
But in the morning you end up settling for lights, camera, action

The implication is that she’s a serial dater, falling for actors and playing out scenes. But scenes don’t last long, and neither do her relationships.

Our would-be leading man promises only the possibility of something real. Whether it’s enough remains to be seen, but as he points out in the final verse: if she keeps her true self hidden away, she’ll end up as part of the audience for the movie that is her life, rather than its star.

And another cameo role with some bit player you’re befriending
You’re gonna go broken-hearted looking for that happy ending
Well girl you’re gonna end up just another lonely ticket sold
Crying alone in the theater as the credits roll
You say I’ll be like those other guys
Who filled your head with pretty lies
And dreams that can never come true
Well you be true to me and I’ll be true to you

Those are the lyrics to “Be True.” “Mary Lou” shares virtually the same lines with only a few minor differences, the most important of which is naming the leading lady. Doing so saps the song of some of its universality by forcing us to imagine another person as the addressee rather than ourselves.

Bruce also includes some lines in “Mary Lou” that shift just a bit too much of the focus to the narrator and provide just a bit too much transparency to the metaphor:

Well you deserve better than this, a real love that can grow
And I ain’t playing outtakes, girl, from some late late show, no

Mary Lou, I’ve seen all those movies too
Mary Lou, Well I know the hurt too much dreaming can do

But much more so than the lyrics, it’s the music that gives “Mary Lou” a harder edge. “Mary Lou” features an aggressive backing track; our narrator almost seems desperate. “Be True,” on the other hand, features a backing track so bright that it could almost be the score of a movie itself, which of course is exactly the point. Bruce is delivering an anti-romantic message the only way he’s sure that his leading lady will receive it: wrapped in romantic, Hollywood trappings.

Its bright and shiny wrapping serves another purpose, too: it makes “Be True” a feel-good crowd-pleaser and cinched it an early spot in virtually every show of the Tunnel of Love Express Tour’s early legs. (It surely didn’t hurt that in concert, the “you be true to me and I’ll be true to you” refrain landed more like a pledge between singer and audience than a promise between Bruce’s characters, especially with Bruce going out of his way to make eye contact with fans during the chorus.)

“Be True” immediately followed the “Tunnel of Love” opener from the very first show of the tour, until Bruce inserted “Boom Boom” in between them a few months later (adding a twisted but at the time hidden irony).

That’s pretty prime set list real estate for an outtake, but it’s not as if the song was completely unknown. Bruce had actually released “Be True” as the B-side to four separate singles: “Fade Away,” in the U.S., “Sherry Darling” in the U.K., “Cadillac Ranch” in Spain, and “I Wanna Marry You” in Japan. If you were a serious Springsteen fan during the River era, you were likely to have picked up the single.

Bruce even played it live once–and only once–by request on the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. Here’s Bruce very first live performance of “Be True.”

Still, “Be True” was new to a lot of fans who joined E Street Nation during the Born in the U.S.A. era, which (combined with the reception it received in concert) may be why Bruce decided to release a live version of it on his Chimes of Freedom EP in 1988.

Bruce finally included “Be True” on an official studio album in 1998 with Tracks, and in 2015 he released the alternate studio version at the top of this article. In concert, “Be True” has made cameo appearances in every E Street Band Tour since 1988, just frequently enough to maintain its rarity status.

It remains on many fans’ chase list, but like I said: “Be True” hasn’t missed an E Street Band outing since 1984. Odds are good we’ll have a chance to hear it again soon.

Bonus: During the summer and autumn legs of his 2005 solo acoustic tour, Bruce played “Be True” on electric piano a few times, starting with this debut in Seattle. It’s a bit rough, but worth a listen as a curiosity.

Be True
Recorded: July 18, 1979
Released: Tracks (1998), The River: Single Album (2015)
First performed: August 26, 1984 (Largo, MD)
Last performed: February 14, 2017 (Brisbane, Australia)

Looking for your favorite Bruce song? Check our full index. New entries every week!