RotD/Cover Me, Donna Summer: Protection

In 1982, David Geffen called in a favor. His record label was still an upstart at the time, and he was looking for material for the first recording artist he’d signed.

Geffen phoned a friend who happened to manage a client who Geffen thought might be just the person to write a song for his artist’s new album. Geffen’s friend agreed to talk to his client about it, and his client was up for the opportunity.

Geffen’s artist was reigning disco queen Donna Summer, and his friend Jon Landau’s client was Bruce Springsteen, rock’s heir to the throne in 1982. The pairing was an intriguing one, and when red-hot producer Quincy Jones was added to the mix, it was a can’t-miss combination.

Bruce set about writing a song that had one foot in the disco arena and one foot in rock. It turned out great–so great, in fact, that Landau wouldn’t let his client give “Cover Me” away.

Landau convinced Bruce to hang on to “Cover Me” (it became the follow-up single to “Dancing in the Dark” and peaked at #7 in 1984), urging him instead to write something just like it, but different.

He did exactly that. Bruce wrote “Protection,” another disco-influenced song that was the lyrical polar opposite of “Cover Me” and recorded a demo with the E Street Band.

Where “Cover Me” featured a narrator begging for the shelter of his partner’s love, the narrator of the anti-“Cover Me” needs protection from his lover.

Night after night I keep holding on
You say you love me, then you leave me so lonely
I don’t believe a single thing you’re saying
I think it’s all some evil game you’re playing

Still all day long, all I do is think about you
You got me believing that I can’t live without you
Well, if you want it, well here’s my confession
Well, I can’t help it, you’re my obsession

Protection, that’s what I need
I want protection, baby, from your love

But despite its thematic inversion, “Protection” is similar to “Cover Me” in more ways than just its musical structure and blistering Boss guitar solos. They’re both lyrically slight, as pop songs often are, relying on the chorus to carry the weight rather than fleshing out the verses with detail and character development.

Still, it’s effective here–considerably more so than in “Cover Me”–thanks in large part to an adrenaline-fueled backing track that captures our narrator’s paranoia. He’s fully wrapped around his lover’s finger, and they both know it–and at least through his eyes, she seems to be enjoying torturing him.

The phone rings in the middle of the night
And when I pick it up, you won’t answer
A knock on the door, I rush down the stairs
When I open up, there’s no one there

Out in the darkness I feel your eyes on me
I lay in bed and feel your hands upon me
Well, is it all just my imagination
You keep me in doubt, believing I can’t live without your
Protection

I stand alone at my window
I see you waiting in the shadows down below
I feel your fingers on my face
I know I want to stay, but I want to run away

Protection, that’s what I need
I want protection, baby, from your love

It’s never quite clear, however, whether the off-screen love interest is as manipulative as our narrator seems to believe. Those middle verses are very similar to the dream sequence in “Downbound Train” (Bruce was dipping into dream imagery often during that period), and it’s easy to imagine our narrator is haunted by his imagination more than his infatuation.

Still, that last verse can go either way. Is he lost in a dream, in memory? Or is this just the beginning of a new cycle of torment? We don’t know, but either way we can feel how badly Bruce’s character needs some relief. Relief that he never gets–this is isn’t that kind of song.

Summer loved the demo of “Protection” so Bruce flew out to Hollywood to work on it with her. For a time there was even talk of them recording a duet together. If such duet was ever recorded, however, it remains unconfirmed to this day.

Still, Bruce spent a few days with Donna working on the song, and he appears on her officially released track, playing lead guitar and contributing backing vocals on a backing track that sounds very similar to the E Street Band’s version. (Roy Bittan also performs on the track.)

Donna released “Protection” as the second single from her self-titled album in early 1983, but it didn’t chart. It did, however, earn her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. (She lost to Pat Benatar.) In her album liner notes, she thanked Bruce for “hangin’ out and workin’ out” on the song.

As for Bruce’s own version, it remains complete but unreleased in his vault. To this day, he’s never performed it in concert, although he may have come close in 1988, when he rehearsed it for the Tunnel of Love Express Tour.

Despite Summer’s inclusion of it on her own album, “Protection” was at one point a contender for Born in the U.S.A. as well, with Landau in particular lobbying for its inclusion. If the long-rumored Born in the U.S.A. anniversary box set ever sees the light of day, there’s a good chance we may finally see an official release of Bruce’s version of “Protection.”

Protection
Recorded: February 23, 1982 (E Street Band version); March 1982 (Donna Summer version)
Released: Donna Summer (1982)
Never performed

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