Roll of the Dice: She’s the One

It began with the beat–perhaps the most famous beat of all time.

You can hear it in “Willie and the Hand Jive.”

You can hear it in “The Magic Bus.”

You can hear it in “Not Fade Away“…

…and in “Desire.”

And of course you can hear it in “I Want Candy,” which is where Mighty Max Weinberg found his inspiration in only his second week as a member of the E Street Band.

But it originated with the man for whom it’s named: Bo Diddley, in his eponymous 1955 single.

In The Stories Behind the Songs, Brian Hiatt reports that “She’s the One” had more of an “Up on Cripple Creek” vibe to it until Max infused it with the Bo Diddley beat, and in so doing Max transformed “She’s the One” into one of the most electrifying songs in Bruce’s catalog.

But that’s only part of the story.

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It began with the Big Man.

“I wrote ‘She’s the One’ because I wanted to hear Clarence play the sax in that solo,” Bruce admitted to author Bill Flanagan in 1987. “I sort of went back and wrote the words to it just ’cause I wanted to hear that beat and hear Clarence play that… I wanted that sax solo and I wanted the guys to play the beat and I had a production idea.”

Bruce debuted “She’s the One” in concert on October 4, 1974 (more than ten months before it would be released on album), and in those early performances, Clarence did indeed get a workout–like in this recording from Boston’s Music Hall on October 29th.

Clinton Heylin’s excellent documentation of Bruce’s recording sessions in E Street Shuffle pins Bruce’s first studio cut at “She’s the One” on October 16th, and I’m inclined to believe it based on the recording.

The lyrics are the same as in the Boston performance on the 29th, but Clarence’s solo is more restrained, lending credence to placing it in mid-October.

Regardless of when he took it into the studio, Bruce had built a song completely around a beat and a solo; the lyrics were an afterthought.

“I sort of went back and wrote the words to it just ’cause I wanted to hear that beat and hear Clarence play that… Things can be compelling just musically. I think that later on I tended to get a little more lyric-oriented first.”

But about those lyrics…

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It began on the backstreets.

“Sometimes I’ll have a couple of lines that can sit around for four or five years. I knew they were good lines but they never found exactly the right setting. In those days, I used to switch and trade all the time. You could do it with a lot of that stuff. I do it a little bit now, but not as much as I used to. It still happens on occasion.”

Bruce’s admission was in answer to Flanagan’s observation that “She’s the One” (even in its final version) included a French cream/French kisses couplet lifted straight from Bruce’s 1973 outtake, “Santa Ana” (which at the time of Flanagan’s interview was still more than a decade away from an official release on Tracks.)

But if you listened carefully to the outtake and early live performance above, you probably had a strong sense of déjà vu from a completely different song.

That original version of “She’s the One” (which Bruce performed regularly in concert right up until the spring of 1975) wasn’t the romantic meditation we know and love today. Bruce’s original lyrics were spiteful and vituperative. This was clearly a post-breakup song.

It was also clearly a work in progress. It isn’t just that we’re used to hearing the final lyrics–these early lyrics are clunky and awkward, especially the second verse:

Well it was not distance, and it was not length
That brought down that wonder girl
It was a date last night and a lover’s fight
In a mixed-up baby’s world
And you were with me in New York
That time we pushed real hard and baby I got beat
You ran and left me wasted
Wasted, burning right there in the street
A ghost like dust, oh baby with that smile
Oh you were born to run
Oh, oh she’s the one

That may be a contender for the worst verse Bruce has ever written.

If we can get past its awkwardness, though, there are a couple of interesting things to note: first, the obvious reference to another destined-for-legend Springsteen song; second, a whiff of “Backstreets” in the wasted/street line.

That scent is about to get a lot stronger:

We hated your ma, we hated your pa
We hated the kids, we hated the cops
I hated the lies and I hated the truth that ran us down
Most of all I hated the town for what they did
I hated the way they made us live
I hated him for his fancy ways
And I hated you when you went away

Now you’re back and you’re huddled in the corner
Where you hated me baby, just like a child
Get back on your feet, come out into the street
Where love was dangerous and wild
Remember all the movies, all them movies, baby
That we’d go see, tryin’ to learn how to walk
Talk, talk rough, just like all the heroes
We thought we had to be
A smile that shines upon me
One that burns just like the sun
Oh, she’s the one

Now, we’ve heard Bruce borrow his own lyrics when working on new music before. But all evidence suggests that this is different–although Bruce is known to have been working on “Backstreets” as early as October 1974 (the same time he was road-testing “She’s the One” in concert), it’s likely that “Backstreets” had different lyrics at that time, and that the lyrics we know and love from that epic were originally created for its poppier album-mate.

Bruce’s last known performance of the early version of “She’s the One” was in March 1975; one month later, he recorded both the earliest circulating studio take of “Backstreets” (which we’ll listen to in a future Roll of the Dice entry) and this next studio outtake of “She’s the One.” As we can hear, the transplant is complete–the “Backstreets” lyrics have been completely excised. We have no replacements, though; “She’s the One” is now shorter and tighter but still angry and harsh.

This second outtake is also notable for Bruce’s scat-ified sax solo–Clarence must not have been at the studio that day.

Now, if you’re familiar with Bruce’s record release dates, you might already be wondering: if “She’s the One” is in such a disjointed state in April 1975–only four months before Born to Run was on record store shelves–when exactly did Bruce get it together?

The answer is: late. Very, very late.

How late? So late that the album was already finished.

So late that the Born to Run Tour had already begun.

Bruce didn’t play “She’s the One” on the tour’s opening night, but on Night Two (July 22), he played it with its final lyrics for the first time. We don’t know exactly when he came up with them, but I suspect it was probably shortly before he debuted them. Because two nights later, Bruce was back in the studio recording those lyrics for the first time. He finished “She’s the One” the following night, July 25th.

The album was on sale a month to the day later, featuring a dramatically transformed “She’s the One.”

The differences in the first verse are subtle but significant: whoever She is, the girls no longer want to rip her apart. The emphasis is on the narrator’s inner turmoil now–he’s no longer angry, he’s just in over his head.

With her killer graces and her secret places
That no boy can fill with her hands on her hips
Oh and that smile on her lips
Because she knows that it kills me
With her soft French cream
Standing in that doorway like a dream
I wish she’d just leave me alone
Because French cream won’t soften them boots
And French kisses will not break that heart of stone
With her long hair falling
And her eyes that shine like a midnight sun
She’s the one

From the second verse forward, however, this new version is a completely different song. No longer a post-breakup song, “She’s the One” is now the story of two fierce spirits, both of whom refuse to be tamed, one of whom may secretly want to be.

That thunder in your heart
At night when you’re kneeling in the dark
It says you’re never gonna leave her
But there’s this angel in her eyes
That tells such desperate lies
And all you want to do is believe her
And tonight you’ll try just one more time
To leave it all behind and to break on through
Oh she can take you, but if she wanna break you
She gonna find out that ain’t so easy to do
And no matter where you sleep tonight or how far you run
She’s the one

And just one kiss
She’d fill them long summer nights
With her tenderness that secret pact you made
Back when her love could save you from the bitterness

“She’s the One” is ultimately still a break-up song, but Bruce has shifted his characters earlier in their story. Now the focus is on the inevitability of the split, rather than the fallout.

It’s only when we go back and read the final lyrics that we realize that even in its final state, “She’s the One” seems unfinished, as if it was meant to have a final verse to either provide resolution or make it clear that none is in the offing.

“She’s the One” reads lyrically rushed and incomplete, but it doesn’t sound that way. Once again: the lyrics are almost beside the point.

“She’s the One” is an alchemical fusion that has no business working as well as it does.

But it does.

When Bruce shortened the song, he tautened it. When he jettisoned his spiteful lyrics, he infused all of their anger and frustration into the E Street Band’s performance. (Roy Bittan in particular is practically a dervish in early performances.)

“She’s the One” crackles and sizzles, and its appearance in the set list guarantees an adrenaline rush rivaled only by “Night” and “My Love Will Not Let You Down.”

It quickly became a set list mainstay, and as Bruce realized how many rock and roll songs were built on that unforgettable beat, “She’s the One” would often feature several minutes of build-up, usually in the form of rock classics like “Not Fade Away” and “Mona,” sometimes drawn from Bruce’s own catalog like “Preacher’s Daughter” and “Ain’t Got You.”

But even (and perhaps especially) without any build-up or introduction), “She’s the One” turbocharges the set.

There’s a reason why “She’s the One” is one of Bruce’s most performed songs, even if its lyrics don’t rank in the top half of his catalog. It’s a guaranteed crowd-pleaser and roof-raiser that isn’t likely to disappear from Bruce’s sets anytime soon.

She’s the One
Recorded: April-July 1975
Released: Born to Run (1975)
First performed: October 4, 1974 (New York City, NY)
Last performed: September 3, 2023 (East Rutherford, NJ)

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