Roll of the Dice: There Goes My Miracle

When Bruce dropped his second single a month in advance of Western Stars, my wife remarked, “I didn’t know he could still sing like that.”

To which I replied, “I didn’t know he could ever sing like that.”

Seriously, Bruce: you’ve been holding out on us.

With the possible exception of “Sundown” on the same album, “There Goes My Miracle” may represent Bruce’s warmest vocals on record. It’s undeniably Orbisonian in almost every way, from Bruce’s lush vocals and heartbreaking theme to soaring melody and orchestral arrangement.

Tracing the lineage of the Western Stars collection is a challenge even for Springsteen scholars, since there’s precious little information available about the recording sessions. However, we can do a little sleuthing and speculating. Bruce is on record stating that the album’s origins date back to as early as 2010:

“I wrote most of [Western Stars] before Wrecking Ball, and I stopped making that record to make Wrecking Ball, and then I went back to it.”

I strongly suspect that “There Goes My Miracle” is one of those original pre-Wrecking Ball tracks–in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bruce had written it during the same period that yielded Working on a Dream in 2009, so similar is the song to that album’s material.

As for when studio work started in earnest, there’s a clue in the involvement of a conspicuously credited backing vocalist: singer-songwriter Matthew Koma in his one and only Springsteen catalog appearance.

Koma actually has one other Springsteen-related credit on his resume: the “Modern Mix” version of “Rocky Ground,” released in mid-2012. Judging from Koma’s recollection of the experience, that was their first collaboration.

My guess is that Koma’s vocal contribution hails from sometime shortly after that connection–and since Ron Aniello is on record as having finished Western Stars twice (first in 2014, and again in 2018), that also supports the notion that “There Goes My Miracle” was largely in the can pretty early on.

“There Goes My Miracle” certainly fits nicely on Western Stars from a production perspective, but lyrically it stands apart. Among a collection of songs featuring characters moving forward even when their destination is in the rear view mirror, the narrator of “There Goes My Miracle” is unique in being the one left behind.

Sunrise, sundown
The streets gone golden brown
Auburn skies above
I’m searching for my love, searching for my love

There goes my miracle
Walking away, walking away
There goes my miracle
Walking away, walking away

Bruce’s first verse is so drenched in vivid color that it’s not immediately apparent to us whether the chorus is marveling or mourning. But there are hints in the form of earthtones and sundown that suggest we are at the end of something rather than the beginning.

The second verse drives that home as darkness descends:

Moonlight, moon bright
Where’s my lucky star tonight
Streets lost in lamp light
Suddenly in sight, suddenly in sight…

There goes my miracle
Walking away, walking away
There goes my miracle
Walking away, walking away

Now it’s becoming clear that something’s off–our protagonist has literally lost his way.

(Production/arrangement props to Patti at the “suddenly in sight” point: the angelic choir is on the nose enough to make me smile every time I hear it without tipping the song over the edge into parody.)

“There Goes My Miracle” is a great example of classic heartbreak pop, but that doesn’t mean Bruce’s sophisticated songwriting skills aren’t on full display. Each successive verse reveals more than the preceding one, and that continues through the bridge as well.

Look what you’ve done
Look what you’ve done
Look what you’ve done

Look what you’ve done
Look what you’ve done
Look what you’ve done

Look what we’ve done
Look what we’ve done
Look what we’ve done

It’s just one line repeated on end, but the pronoun shift in the final triad tells us so much.

We can debate whether the first six instances are addressed to our protagonist’s ex-lover or whether its simply self-castigation, but the shift from “you” to “we” is significant regardless: it’s how we know our narrator acknowledges and accepts his role in their dissolution.

The final verse lays it bare:

Heartache, heartbreak
Love gives, love takes
The book of love holds its rules
Disobeyed by fools, disobeyed by fools

Bruce has often noted that his songs can typically be distilled down to a single line or passage. With “There Goes My Miracle,” we can find the entire song in the last couplet: if you break the rules, you pay the price.

We get one more chorus from Bruce and a lingering “walking away” before he ends the song the way he began it: with an unresolved “sunrise, sundown” that suggests that while our narrator may be self-aware enough to recognize the cycle, he may not possess enough self-will to break it.

It’s happened before, and it will likely happen again. The miracle may be that he made it this far.

Bruce hasn’t performed “There Goes My Miracle” in concert, at least in part because there haven’t been many opportunities for him to perform anything since its release thanks to the great pandemic of 2020.

But he did perform it at least once for the cameras during the filming of Western Stars (the movie), and it’s the exception among the album’s tracks in that it was subtly improved in the process. (For example, see the backing vocals that enter at the “Look what we’ve done” section at the 2:30 mark.)

Even so, “There Goes My Miracle” shares a trait with its album-mates: it’s pretty darn hard if not impossible to improve upon in concert.

As much as I adore the entire album, I’m perfectly content for Bruce to omit these songs from his set lists. “There Goes My Miracle” and its cohorts were perfectly conceived in the studio, and for me at least, that’s the way they should be appreciated.

There Goes My Miracle
Recorded: 2010-2019
Released: Western Stars (2019)
First performed: April 2019
Last performed: April 2019

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