Steel Mill was known for its heavy sound, pointed lyrics, and extended guitar jams.
But there were exceptions.
Case in point: “I Am the Doctor,” an original Springsteen composition that Steel Mill played during the first half of 1970.
“I Am the Doctor” is as light as Steel Mill gets; it certainly won’t make anyone’s list of best Springsteen lyrics. But then, it doesn’t need to. “I Am the Doctor” was a mid-set palate cleanser for the band.
Bookended by an “I’ll do anything for you” framing sequence that showed off the band’s harmonies, the heart of the song is an extended slow jam in which a 20-year-old Bruce Springsteen gets to stretch his frontman muscles.
If I can make you happy
If I can make you smile
If I can make you feel good
Just for a while
I’d wiggle my ears and stand on my head
Forget about your worries and don’t sulk-as long as I can play
If I can turn your teardrops into a laugh
Make you forget about the hard times, forget the past
Do anything that you want me to
Forget about your worries and don’t sulk, it’s alright for you…
Well you’re screaming and bitching about the hard times that you’ve had
You say that a day don’t go by your luck don’t turn bad
You show me all the things you bought with money that you never had
And you’re feeling kinda sorry now and looking kinda sad
A backache or a earache or too much LSD
Well I am the Doctor, won’t you call me, call on me
Now I am the Doctor, come on call, I’ll make you sing
In the mid-song passage below, we can hear early evidence of Bruce’s sense of humor and his growing ease with semi-improvisational musical patter.
If you got a backache, or an earache, or a headache
Or a toothache, or a bellyache, or any ache
If you broke your arm, got a burned down bar
Your car smashed, you got whiplashed, your lover’s gone, or you’re all alone
Or you broke your bones, or you’re a little bit too stoned
Well I am the Doctor, won’t you come on and see me
I am the Doctor, one hundred percent guaranteed
Well I can cure nearly all of your miseries
But you gotta take it easy…
(At this point, Bruce slips into one of his earliest mid-song stories, but maddeningly the recording is too distant for us to clearly hear it. If you can understand and transcribe it, I’d be much obliged–all I can tell is that it has something to do with surfboards.)
Well I am the Doctor, won’t you come on and see me
I am the Doctor, one hundred percent guaranteed
I can cure nearly all of your miseries
All you gotta do, I won’t charge you no mammoth fee
Just come on over to my office for free
“I Am the Doctor” wouldn’t make Steel Mill’s greatest hits, but it ably served its purpose in concert. There were three known performances between February and June 1970, and because set lists from that era are scarce, we can safely assume there were more.
I Am The Doctor
Never recorded
Never released
First performed: February 28, 1970 (Richmond, VA)
Last performed: June 14, 1970 (Bricktown, NJ)
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