Back in the River era, Bruce used to record his band’s rehearsal sessions so he could hear how they sounded as a unit and tweak his arrangements as required.
Since none of the recordings were meant to be kept for posterity, he didn’t use the best of equipment. In fact, he used a boom box situated so that it would capture the band’s full sound.
None of the singers (including Bruce himself) were miked, which means that any vocals were almost always inaudible in the recordings. Combined with Bruce’s penchant for bluffing lyrics during these sessions, trying to decipher what he’s singing in these tapes is a futile exercise.
Occasionally, though, one of the band members would stand close enough to the boom box to be clearly picked up, and that’s hilariously the case with today’s entry. See if you can guess who it was:
We likely wouldn’t even know the title of this abandoned song had The Big Man not been standing so close to the recorder, but we can’t possibly miss him or his shouted “I Don’t Wanna Be!” vocals.
As far as we know, “I Don’t Wanna Be” never developed into a full song. It’s melody, however, is very familiar. After at least a half dozen failed melodic attempts, Bruce grafted an evolved version of “I Don’t Wanna Be” onto “Jackson Cage.”
I Don’t Wanna Be
Recorded: May 1979 (rehearsal only)
Never released
Never performed
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