Roll of the Dice: Missing

“I got together a lot of samples and loops and started to put this album together. It was fun; I enjoyed doing it, but I needed two or three more songs, and for some reason, I never got around to writing them. So I put it away. Eventually, I’m going to find a way to get this music out to people. — Bruce Springsteen, Time Magazine, November 16, 1998

Bruce Springsteen loves a good curveball.

He’s been throwing them as far back as Nebraska in 1982 and as recently as Western Stars in 2018.

But for all the unexpected albums he’s surprised and challenged us with over the years, perhaps the biggest curveball was his 1994 solo album–the one he has yet to release.

Riding a triumphant comeback wave with his Oscar-winning hit “Streets of Philadelphia” (following a pair of albums and tours with mixed reviews and sales), Bruce decided to mine the vein he unearthed for “Streets of Philadelphia” and see where it led him.

In his temporary home studio in Los Angeles (the Springsteens were actually living in Bruce’s regular home studio following a major earthquake in January ’94), Bruce collected a catalog of recorded drum loops, pulled out a synthesizer, and over the course of a year crafted almost an album’s worth of songs.

First alluding to it during his promotional tour for Tracks, the album became known among fans as “the hip hop album,” although from what I’ve read and heard I suspect it might be more accurate to call it “the EDM album.” Either descriptor would have been enough to raise fans’ eyebrows.

Only one song from those sessions ever saw the light of day, however–and only because one of Bruce’s friends asked for a favor.

Towards the end of the year, Sean Penn invited Bruce to preview Penn’s upcoming film, The Crossing Guard. Bruce liked it, and when he mentioned to Sean that he was actively working on new music, Penn let it be known that he would very much like to include one of Bruce’s new songs if Bruce had anything he felt would be appropriate for the film.

Three days later, Sean Penn was in possession of a brand new Bruce Springsteen song, and when The Crossing Guard debuted in theaters in late 1995, “Missing” played over the opening credits. (It plays in full over the end credits as well.)

The film bombed, earning back less than a million of its $9 million budget, and without a soundtrack album, that meant that a brand new Springsteen song came and went with almost zero notice.

But almost zero is still something, and so to capitalize on what notice there was, Bruce released “Missing” as a single in April 1996, backed by a live version of “Darkness on the Edge of Town” from his in-progress Ghost of Tom Joad Tour.

“Missing” is certainly a musical departure from everything Bruce had released to that point.

Its predominant feature is its throbbing percussion and bass track, with Bruce playing bongos, tambourine, maracas, and bass drum (and whatever else I’m unable to pick out–Bruce is the only credited musician on the entire track).

There’s a simple four-note synthesizer theme established early on, and a 1970s-funk guitar riff that enters halfway through, but the melody is carried entirely by Bruce’s vocals.

As for the lyrics: if this is your first time hearing “Missing,” you’re probably experiencing some deja vu.

“Missing” is very similar in title, theme, and at times lyrics to “You’re Missing,” from Bruce’s 2002 album, The Rising. 

Woke up this morning, was a chill in the air
Went into the kitchen, my cigarettes were lying there
Jacket hung on the chair, the way I left it last night
Everything was in place, everything seemed alright

But you were missing… missing… 

There’s no doubt that Bruce consciously reworked his obscure 1994 single for his 2002 album, to great effect. But obvious musical differences aside, once we move past the first verse of “Missing” (which is very similar in structure and imagery to “You’re Missing”), the songs diverge.

The latter song is clearly about the aftermath of a tragic death; Bruce conveys as much through his lyrics, his music, and the context of the album. “Missing” however, was composed long before the tragic events of September 2001, and the circumstances surrounding the titular missing character are far more ambiguous.

Is the narrator’s lover dead? Has she fled? Is she in trouble, or has she simply moved on? We never learn, but her departure hits our narrator as hard as the one that hits the protagonist in “Downbound Train.” The comparison is especially apt considering the dream sequences that haunt both narrators:

Last night I dreamed the sky went black
You were drifting down, couldn’t get back
Lost in trouble, so far from home
I reached for you, my arms were like stone

Woke and you were missing… missing…

Whether the narrator’s missing love is dead or still alive, there’s a strong implication in this verse that whatever circumstances took her from him were not of her choosing. Some kind of trouble or ill influence claimed her, and our narrator is guilt-ridden over his inability to save her.

Searched for something to explain
In the whispering rain and the trembling leaves
Tell me baby, where did you go
You were here just a moment ago

The narrator may be asking “where,” but it seems clear that the question he’s really obsessed with is “why.” She’s gone now–physically, at least–but our protagonist still feels her presence when he lies in bed at night. And in one of Bruce’s more literally haunting endings, he lies motionless as the song fades out, unwilling or unable to risk breaking the fragile sensory illusion  that’s all he has left of his lost love.

There’s nights I still hear your footsteps fall
I can hear your voice moving down the hall
Drifting through the bedroom
I lie awake but I don’t move

Missing, missing, missing, missing…

For an experimental obscurity, “Missing” is a strikingly effective and powerful song. Perhaps because it’s been overshadowed by its cousin on The Rising, Bruce has never played “Missing” in concert, but he did finally give it a proper album release on The Essential Bruce Springsteen in 2003.

As for the rest of his abandoned 1994 album, rumor has it we may yet hear it someday when Bruce finally releases his long-awaited follow-up to Tracks.

Missing
Recorded: March-April, 1994
Released: Missing (single, 1996), The Essential Bruce Springsteen (2003)
Never performed