Roll of the Dice: Stand On It

“The moral of this book is quick and easy: If you’re ever going to stand on it at all, stand on it now. The longer you wait, the slower you get. — Stroker Ace, Stand On It (1973)

To this day, I have no idea what Bruce is actually singing in the first line of “Stand On It.”

I mean, I guess I do, because I have the lyrics as a reference, but for the life of me my brain is unable to make sense of that rapid-fire syllabic barrage. And honestly, it’s touch and go for the rest of the song as well. When he performs it in concert, it sounds like pure vocalese to me.

But that’s just Bruce walking his talk.

“Stand On It” was almost certainly inspired by the 1973 novel by the same name, the fictional autobiography of race car driver Stroker Ace (really co-authors William Neely and Robert K. Ottum), whose solution to any and all of life’s challenges was… well, stand on it.

Stand on it. Put the pedal to the metal. Go fast, as fast as you can go–and then go faster still. That’s the motto and the moral of the book, and it also carried over to the critically panned film, which premiered just a few weeks before Bruce wrote his song.

As “Ace” urges in the book, “If you’re ever going to stand on it at all, stand on it now. The longer you wait, the slower you get.”

Bruce turned that motto into a rockabilly cautionary tale in his 1985 B-side to “Glory Days.” The first two verses (if you can make them out) hurtle past us as fast as Jimmy Lee and Mary Beth themselves.

Well Jimmy Lee was hooking ’round the far turn of a funky southern Florida dirt track
He had mud caked on his goggles and a screaming 350 stacked up on his back
Well as he passed the stands he was feeling all tuckered out
When through the roar of his engine he heard somebody shout
“Stand on it, come on boy, stand on it”

Mary Beth started to drift, she hit the shift but she just couldn’t get a hand on it
Racing some Red Hill boys, she had the deed to the ranch and a grand on it
With eight grand blowing hot on the red line
She blew past a hitchhiker out on Route 39
He hollered “Stand on it, go ‘head baby, stand on it”

Jimmy Lee is flagging on the dirt track until a shouted encouragement reignites his fire. Mary Beth’s stakes are higher: her house is on the line, but she listens to the hitchhiker and stands on it, too.

Stand on it. It applies to racing, but it applies to life, too–and you can leave it all out on the dance floor as easily as the dirt track.

Well now when in doubt and you can’t figure it out, just stand on it
Well if your mind’s confused, you don’t know what you’re gonna do, well buddy, stand on it
Well if you’ve lost control of the situation at hand
Go grab a girl and see a rock and roll band
And stand on it, come on man, stand on it

Feeling doubtful, confused, not in control? Just drive fast, fall hard.

Just to make sure we don’t miss the message, Bruce pauses the racing metaphor and teaches a history lesson.

Hey-hey, well now Columbus he discovered America even though he hadn’t planned on it
He got lost and woke up one a-morning when he’s about to land on it
He wouldn’t have got out of Italy, man that’s for sure
Without Queen Isabella standing on the shore
Shouting “Stand on it, go ahead man, stand on it”

And it’s at this point that we realize Bruce is sending another message, too: even the most daring of us have doubts. Sometimes we just need someone in our corner cheering us on, giving us courage, just like Jimmy Lee, Mary Beth, and even Columbus did.

Or, if we refuse to listen, at least someone heckling us to make sure we learn our lesson. Poor Bobby. This is what happens when you ease up before you cross the finish line:

Bobby was leading the pack, he settled back and he got ready for the long haul
Well fifty yards from the finish line somebody roared up and they blew him into the wall
Well he rolled over twice, lucky to survive
Laying in the back of the ambulance more dead than alive
Somebody shouted “Man, you call that driving, why didn’t you stand on it”

“Stand On It” is so hilariously and ferociously paced that it’s easy to dismiss it as a lark (which it kind of is–Bruce reportedly wrote it the night he recorded it, at the end of a long, late-night recording session). But even if extreme, the message is a serious one, and close enough to Bruce’s modus operandi to only be exaggerated by a degree or two.

It’s all wrapped up in a rockabilly track that would make The Killer proud, remarkable not just for the speed and ease with which it was created, but also the tight performance by the four-man combo (only Bruce, Roy, Garry, and Max play on the track, and the Professor is the true star), not to mention the stamina it must have required at the end of that long night.

“Stand On It” was released as the B-side to Bruce’s 1985 “Glory Days” single, and then again the following year on the soundtrack album for Ruthless People–both times in an edited-down version omitting the final verse.

Despite being released on the flip side of a Top 10 single and a popular film, “Stand On It” never really registered on the pop culture radar. It didn’t garner attention when Bruce released the full version on Tracks in 1998 either.

Still, it’s been a fan favorite in its relatively rare live outings, thanks in part to Bruce’s mugging and hamming when he performs it.

Even in relatively recent times, it’s a hoot to watch Bruce rip through “Stand On It,” even (or especially) if he needs to gather up a good head of steam to make it all the way through.

Although it’s become pretty rare these days, “Stand On It” still makes appearances from time to time. And even if it seems like the band might play it just a little bit slower than they used to…

…at the end of the day “Stand On It” isn’t about setting land speed records. It’s about leaving it all out on the field, and the E Street Band still does that night after night.

Stand On It
Recorded: June 16, 1983
Released: Tracks (1998)
First performed: August 31, 1985 (East Rutherford, NJ)
Last performed: April 22, 2014 (Pittsburgh, PA)

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