Oh, how I love this song.
I’m a sucker for Bruce Springsteen Band material in general, but “I Remember” stops me in my tracks every single time.
Although I’m not even sure if we can fairly call it a song. It may be more accurate to call it an improv piece: a loose framework for Bruce to testify, plead, and soul shout his way through. For anyone paying attention in 1972, “I Remember” telegraphed the commanding presence with which he would someday hold entire stadiums in thrall.
But this was pre-E Street 1972, in a little club called The Back Door in Richmond, where the Bruce Springsteen Band held down a month-long residency.
There are few surviving documents from these shows, but we know that Bruce performed “I Remember” at least twice (and once prior in a late 1971 appearance at the Student Prince in Asbury Park).
The clip below is from February 1972, the best of the three surviving, circulating recordings. It’s clear throughout that the band –Vini Lopez, David Sancious, Garry Tallent, and Steven Van Zandt–are vamping too, laying down a mellow, tender, restrained two-chord groove for Bruce to lose himself in for fifteen minutes. Only occasionally does the band swell in power and volume to give Bruce a cresting wave to surf–which he does with rueful vocals that ooze heartache and regret far beyond what one would expect from a 22-year-old singer-songwriter.
Each recorded performance of “I Remember” is unique–Bruce clearly intended it as such–but the storyline is always the same: Boy had girl; boy lost girl; boy misses girl; boy finds girl; boy begs girl; girl rebuffs boy; girl shrugs and takes boy back.
It’s almost pointless to try to document the lyrics, because they were different every time. The lyrics aren’t the point, anyway–it’s the delivery that matters. This is a young Bruce Springsteen already in top preachifying, testifying form. Don’t even bother reading the lyrics until after you’ve had the impact of listening to his performance above with fresh ears first. Already did? Okay, fine:
I remember the first time I saw you
Because I thought to myself
I said that woman sure looks good
And I went home and I prayed to the Lord each night
I said oh Jesus, I told him I had to have you
Because I thought that you would love me
Like I would want my baby to
Yes and I remember the first time I loved you, sure felt true
And I remember, yes I do…
And I remember the first time I touched you
Because the stars fell from the sky
And they glowed down on the earth like a giant firefly
Yeah that’s when I knew, that’s when I knew it had to be you
That’s when I knew, That’s when I knew
There was just no other, that I needed you for my lover
That’s when I knew, oh that’s when I knew
Because I remember
Yes, I love you
Yes, I love you
Yes, I do
I remember the first time that you left me
Because I thought that you were fooling when you said you was gonna go
Just like you fooled me, you fooled me so many times before
Cause you know we got along alright for a few years
But then just things started happening and it wasn’t the same no more
No it just wasn’t the same no more
And you’d gone off so many times before
But you always came back
And I remember when you went out and you slammed the door once
Yes I remember that was the first time
You went out and you slammed the door
And I thought you were fooling, yeah, I thought you were fooling
And you went out and slammed the door a second time
But you came back, oh you came back yes you did
And you went out and I heard that door slam three times
But you came back to me
And I remember the fourth time you went out, and this time it hurt
But you came back
But it was the fifth time that you went out, the door went
And you didn’t come back…
And the days went by, and the months went by
And I just stayed up in my room
I just hung out in my room, playing the records and my radio
Just watching tv all the time by myself
And then it was a year gone by and I saw you
Walking downtown, I saw you walking down the street
Oh you looked so good you were boppin’ down the street
She had her hair all done up, and she had that little dog
She had that dog on that leash, and her friends were telling her
You got that boy on a leash, you got that boy on a leash
She had that little dog that she always had, walking down the street
She was boppin down the street to the beat of the band
And her friends say you got that boy on a leash, you got that boy on a leash
And I said “hi baby how ya doing”, and she said “Oh I been fine”
And I said “yeah you look good, what’s been happening”
She said “oh not too much, I just been going to work, I got a little job
And I got a good man and he says he loves me”
And then I said “baby, oh baby sweet baby, won’t you come back to me?”
And she said “no I just can’t make it”
I said “darling won’t you come back to me I’ve been missing you”
And she said “no I just can’t take it”
I said “darling won’t you come back to me because I need you”
And she said “no honey I just can’t stand it again”
I said “but darling I want you”
She said “no Bill I just can’t make it”
I said “well honey I need you”
And she said “no, I just can’t make it”
I said “but darling I want you I feel so bad”
She said “no, I just can’t make it”
I said “Darling I love you, and you said it would be alright, you said it was going to be alright”
“Oh darling I love you won’t you come on home”
She said “I’m coming home”
She’s coming home, she’s coming home
She’s coming home, she’s coming home, baby’s coming home
Baby’s coming home
And I remember the first time I loved you
It was so damn true
Oh I remember your lovin’
Yes I do
Yes I really do girl
Because the way you love me sometimes is just so frightening
Can’t you see we go together, mama, just like thunder and just like lightning
For an example of just how much of an improv piece “I Remember” was, compare it to this (unfortunately) incomplete recording from just three months earlier. The structure and story are clearly the same, but by the time we reach the 4:30 mark, Bruce is in completely different but just as impassioned lyrical territory.
No studio recording of “I Remember” is known to exist, and if there are other live performances they do not circulate widely. But these fifty-year-old live recordings give us an early glimpse into the show-stopping power Bruce Springsteen would soon bring to bigger and bigger stages.
I Remember
Never recorded
Never released
First performed: November 13, 1971 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: February 26, 1972 (Richmond, VA)
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