On the Line is the great Springsteen pop album that never was.
Both Gary U.S. Bonds’ 1982 album and its immediate predecessor Dedication were produced by Bruce and Steven Van Zandt, and both albums are full of glorious, original Springsteen River-era pop songs.
Both albums spawned Springsteen-penned hit singles (“This Little Girl” from Dedication and “Out of Work” from On the Line), but they were only the tip of the iceberg of ridiculously great compositions given away by Bruce to Bonds.
In fact, On the Line contains a whopping seven original Springsteen songs, many of which feature Bruce and the E Street Band performing on the studio tracks. Six of the seven are hand-clappingly poppy, infectiously danceable party songs, but one of them stops listeners dead in their tracks: the devastating, heart-breaking “Love’s on the Line.”
“Love’s on the Line” is the album’s centerpiece, and its emotional rawness comes out of nowhere. It’s a song that resonates with any couple that can see the light at the end of the child-raising tunnel but isn’t sure anymore who their partner will be come daylight.
Tell me baby
Have we lost everything that we had before
What do you do in the day
When I walk out the door
I can see you made up your mind
And I know our love’s on the line
Love’s on the line, our love’s on the line
Love’s on the line, our love’s on the line
Love’s on the line, our love’s on the line
There’s trouble in paradise from the outset. Our narrator knows that he and his partner have grown distant, and what’s more: he suspects his wife has already passed the point of no return.
But if the verses of “Love’s on the Line” are brooding and contemplative, the four-word chorus (featuring Bruce prominently on backing vocals) is a cry of anguish. Bruce plays on the meaning of “on the line”–we’re meant to hear it as “at stake,” as if their love is still salvageable. However, a closer listen reveals a deeper meaning: their love has flatlined. They’re just going through the motions. And with love faded, dissatisfaction and distrust set in.
With each passing day
I gotta watch more and more what I say to you
I can feel your eyes looking through me
As I sit at the table at dinnertime
I can feel our love’s on the line
Love’s on the line, our love’s on the line
Love’s on the line, our love’s on the line
Love’s on the line, our love’s on the line
What’s fascinating about this verse is how Bruce abandons his rhyme scheme, as if the narrator is so caught up in his thoughts he forgets he’s singing.
There’s a gorgeously wistful nostalgic E Street instrumental break here–one of the best on record, in fact. (But while one would be forgiven for assuming that’s the Big Man on saxophone, it’s actually Joey Stann’s solo.)
Bruce’s last verse shreds on its own power, but Gary absolutely nails his vocals, heightening the tension and escalating the emotion in what may be my favorite Bonds’ performance on record. I’m not sure Bruce could have matched its potency if he’d released his own version.
I watch our kids
Growin’ up, going to school
Is there anything else for us now
Are we both just fools
Wasting our precious time
At night we lay in bed
But it’s like you’re not even there
There’s something real bad
Going wrong somewhere
Last night I heard you cry
And I know our love’s on the line
“Love’s on the Line” is a true hidden gem, one of Bruce’s best River-era compositions and one of Bonds’ finest performances. It flies under the radar, but it’s a song and an album that should be in any fan’s collection.
Love’s on the Line
Recorded: January – February 1982
Released: On the Line (1982)
Never performed
This is great Ken. I couldn’t agree more. I’d love to hear to a version with Bruce’s lead vocal.
Ken – thanks for highlighting and reviewing “Love’s on the Line” along with mentioning the other great Springsteen written songs from the On The Line album. “Love’s on the Line” has been a favorite of mine since it was released in spring 1982.
Great summary, Ken. One of Bruce’s best songs, in my opinion.
I was really hoping Bruce’s original vocal performance would have shown up on “Tracks”. Probably the most gorgeous song he ever gave away. His background vocals on Gary US Bonds cut are pretty amazing too.
It’s just in my collection as a vinyl i recently found… one of the best song of that era. 1979-1982 is just my favorite period: that mix of 70’s sound, the Nebraska cut-off, and the BITUSA break-out. Hard to explain but it has a feel that willl be gone after mid 1982.
My favourite on this zlbum. Agree fully with your review. Love to hear Bruce sing it.
Ken, “Love’s On The Line” ranks right up there with “Fire” and “Because the Night” as the GREATEST songs Bruce has given to another to sing/record.
What I find most fascinating about it is that Bruce wrote it when he was still a single, unmarried man–and yet, its trenchant, heartbreaking lyrics about the inexorable dissolution of a marriage-with-children ring empathetically TRUE, as if Bruce experienced it himself, instead of it being “merely” his innate journalistic ability to write accurately from pure observation.
And I can only write these words because i experienced the dying of my own 19-year marriage-with-children many years AFTER “Love’s On The Line” debuted. So when Bruce writes:
With each passing day
I gotta watch more and more what I say to you
I can feel your eyes looking through me
As I sit at the table at dinnertime
I can feel our love’s on the line
…I remember LIVING those lines.
Musically, it’s one of Bonds’ greatest vocals–along with maybe Bruce’s own greatest BACKGROUND vocals (listen to how he stretches out the final word “line” at the very end of the song, long after Bonds had stretched his!)–and a most powerful performance by the E Street Band, featuring just an incredibly great sax solo, and deep-bottom drumming by Max.
Ken, thanx for writing about it as beautifully as you did, giving this gem of Bruce’s your “official” stamp for posterity!!