Roll of the Dice: Kitty’s Back

When Bruce inducted the E Street Band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they closed their set with the only song appropriate for the occasion.

It was also the only song they didn’t sound check before the show.

Because there’s no point in rehearsing it. If you sound tight while playing “Kitty’s Back,” you’re doing it wrong.

“Kitty’s Back” is more jazz than rock. It’s big and it’s brassy. It struts and it swings. It stretches and it stretches… and it stretches.

And there’s no better showcase in Bruce’s entire catalog for the virtuosity of the E Street Band–which is why it was the only song fit to cap the band’s performance at their induction.

Bruce recorded “Kitty’s Back” with the E Street Band in 1973, but he’d been working toward it for at least three years. As far back as his Steel Mill stint, we can hear elements of what would become “Kitty’s Back” turn up in Bruce’s long, improvisational showpieces.

Take “Garden State Parkway Blues,” for example, a thirty-minute(!) epic jam that first surfaced in 1969. I highly recommend checking out my original essay on it, because “Garden State Parkway Blues” contains the DNA for several later Springsteen songs. But I’ll save you time for now and guide you to the appropriate markers–skip to 4:57, 8:50, 11:44, and 21:46 to hear unmistakable echoes of “Kitty’s Back.”

Those elements would turn up in Bruce’s early work from time to time until he finally brought them together in a big band arrangement that (like much of his early work) served primarily as a framing sequence for epic and extended instrumental jams with completely superfluous lyrics–in this case about a guy who can’t seem to let go of his unfaithful ex.

Bruce and the band recorded “Kitty’s Back” in the summer of ’73. A contemporaneous early performance of the song–almost certainly from a show just prior to or during those sessions–reveals an almost final but still clearly work-in-progress song, especially the final section where Bruce hadn’t quite settled on the lyrics.

But we’re not going to talk about the lyrics today, because as I said earlier: the lyrics are incidental. I’m not even sure why Bruce wrote them–this isn’t a song you sing, it’s a song you play. It’s a song you feel, and a song you experience.

Lyrics? Bah. Apart from the endless “ooooh all right” coda. there’s only one essential line in “Kitty’s Back”:

Get right. Get tight. Get down!

That’s the song. Everything else is just clever feline imagery and wordplay.

Catlong sighs holding Kitty’s black tooth
She left to marry some top cat, ain’t it the cold truth
And there hasn’t been a tally since Sally left the alley
Since Kitty left with Big Pretty things have got pretty thin
It’s tight on this fence since them young dudes are muscling in

Well, Jack Knife cries ’cause baby’s in a bundle
She goes running nightly, lightly through the jungle
And them tin cans are exploding out in the ninety-degree heat
Cat somehow lost his baby down on Bleecker Street
It’s sad, but it sure is true
Cat shrugs his shoulders, sits back and sighs
Ooh what can I do?

Catlong lies back bent on a trash can
Flashing lights cut the night, dude in white says he’s the man
Well, you better learn to move fast when you’re young or you’re not long around
Cat somehow lost his Kitty down in the city pound
So get right, get tight, get down

Well, who’s that down at the end of the alley?
She’s been gone so long
(Here she comes, here she comes, here she comes, here she comes)

Kitty’s back in town (here she comes, now)
Kitty’s back in town (oh, oh, all right)

Now, Cat knows his Kitty’s been untrue
And that she left him for a city dude
But she’s so soft, she’s so blue
When he looks into her eyes
He just sits back and sighs
Oh what can I do?

(Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, all right, ooh, all right)
(Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, all right, ooh, all right)

“Kitty’s Back” gelled in the studio. The recording that appears on The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle provides star turns for every band member–most notably David Sancious, who cuts loose with a virtuosic solo, and Vini Lopez, who doesn’t so much play as feel his way through the song (and that’s a good thing). Both Vini and David would depart the band before Bruce recorded his next album, but at least they both have this fine spotlight moment on vinyl.

Overall, though, the studio version of “Kitty’s Back” doesn’t match the power of its live outings. The sound is a bit too sterile, the pace a bit too quick–almost manic at times. “Kitty’s Back” is meant to be cool, and the studio track has a bit too much heat.

“Kitty’s Back” is a song that needs to be experienced live. Almost immediately, it started to grow and expand, from its original ten-minute performance in 1973 to almost twice that length two years later.

And like any great jazz piece, no two performances of “Kitty’s Back” are alike. Very quickly, it became both a fan favorite and a band favorite, allowing almost every member a chance to shine each night. For example, check out this 1975 performance from the Hammersmith Odeon for one of Danny Federici’s finest moments on film.

There are so many great, unique performances of “Kitty’s Back” that one could spend hours on end listening to dozens of them and feel like you’d experienced a different song each time–without ever leaving 1975. (I know I have.)

After the Born to Run era, though, “Kitty’s Back” became a rarity, making only a few appearances in ’78 and then disappearing entirely for a couple of decades before returning at Bruce’s inaugural Asbury Park holiday shows in 2000 in a big, horn-fueled arrangement powered by The Max Weinberg 7.

Kitty has made a few dozen return engagements since then but still remains elusive, surfacing on occasion when Bruce is in the mood to let the band stretch and shine. Even (and especially) in their super-sized incarnation with a full horn section, the modern-day E Streeters are skilled enough to roll with Bruce’s on-the-fly arrangement, providing us with delightful performances like this one from Perth, where we can watch Bruce direct the band throughout.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite performances of “Kitty’s Back,” and possibly my favorite of Bruce’s television appearances ever. During the 2002 holiday season, at the height of the Rising Tour, Bruce and the band appeared on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, where they were joined on stage by The Max Weinberg 7.

Did they play a song from The Rising, an album that Bruce was still actively promoting? Nope. Did they play a holiday classic for the season? Yes, eventually, but only later in the show.

The song they came to play that night was the song that truly showcases the amazing array of talent in the E Street Band and probably did more to spike ticket sales than “Born to Run” or “Dancing in the Dark” would have: a joyous, ten-minute rendition of “Kitty’s Back.”

Kitty’s Back
Recorded: June 28, 1973 – September 23, 1973
Released: The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (1973)
First performed: July 20, 1973 (New York City, NY)
Last performed: September 3, 2023 (East Rutherford, NJ)

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