Roll of the Dice: I Wanna Start a New Life

Today’s entry is another abandoned work-in-progress, but it’s one that showed a lot of promise.

This home demo of recording of “I Wanna Start a New Life” dates back to late 1979, likely after Bruce had finished his ultimately abandoned The Ties That Bind album, but before the second batch of sessions that produced the songs that would ultimately round out the two-disc The River.

We only have two verses (of which two lines are completely bluffed) and a chorus to figure out what Bruce was reaching for, but we also have a gorgeous acoustic melody that sounds for all the world like something Jackson Browne might have recorded.

We left our home on the hillside
We left our family and our friends
We came down here to ???
To start all over again

We left when the fields turned for springtime
We went down there in eight hours time
Da da da da da da
Da da da da da

I wanna start a new life
I wanna start a new life
I wanna make it easy and free
And forget about the man that I used to be

That last line likely gives away the game: had Bruce completed the song, it’s likely that “I Wanna Start a New Life” would have fit neatly into one of Bruce’s favorite themes–a search for escape, redemption, and second chances.

Unfortunately, though, Bruce doesn’t seem to have pursued the song any further, so “I Wanna Start a New Life” never had a chance at any life at all.

I Wanna Start a New Life
Recorded: Late 1979 (demo only)
Never released
Never performed

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