Roll of the Dice: Two Faces

“For a long time, if I loved you or if I felt a deep attachment to you, I’d hurt you if I could.” –Bruce Springsteen,  Western Stars

This isn’t the first time I’ve used that pull quote in a Roll of the Dice installment.

It’s not even the first time I’ve used it in a Tunnel of Love essay. Long before Bruce opened up publicly in interviews about his lifelong struggles with depression, he was telling us about it through his work.

With the possible exception of “Cautious Man,” nowhere is that more evident than in “Two Faces.”

As is his wont, Bruce took inspiration not just from his own personal experience but from a classic rock and roll song.

Bruce has long been a fan of ’60s legend Lou Christie, of falsetto fame. In fact, Bruce used to catch Christie’s gigs in Greenwich Village but (according to Christie in an Asbury Park Press interview) was too intimidated to approach the famous singer at the time. When the two finally met in 2009, Bruce told Christie that his doo wop-era classics ranked among his favorite records.

Those favorites almost certainly included Christie’s 1963 Top Ten single, “Two Faces Have I.”

“Two Faces Have I” peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it finished at #44 for the year. But it wasn’t just the falsetto and the catchy melody that likely caught Bruce’s attention. Something about the chorus also lodged itself in his brain.

Two faces have I
One to laugh and one to cry

Christie’s song wasn’t about dual personalities or warring natures; it was just a simple pop break-up song featuring a narrator who hides his heartbreak from the world. But the notion of two faces–one that laughs and one that cries–likely resonated, and it surfaced to the top of his mind when writing material for what would become Tunnel of Love.

By that time, Bruce was well aware of his more destructive side, and he’d already started understanding and grappling with it via therapy–which may be why he began grappling with it more directly in his songwriting as well.

He was still Bruce Springsteen, though. He might have been ready to address his demons lyrically, but musically he’d hide them in a deceptively upbeat solo backing track–solo, that is, except for Max Weinberg on drums and what must be Danny Federici on the organ, although if so he is strangely uncredited.

“Two Faces” is a spare song both in orchestration and narration. Bruce’s lyrics are among his most economical, eschewing metaphor beyond the titular, and yet they are powerfully effective–building tension towards the bridge, tension we don’t even detect at first listen.

I met a girl and we ran away
I swore I’d make her happy every day
And how I made her cry
Two faces have I

Once we’ve heard the song in full, we can hear the song in a darker light, but on first listen, following a carefree instrumental introduction, we hear that third line (“and how I made her cry”) as wedding day tears of happiness. Only the verse’s final line provides more ominous shading, and in the second verse Bruce employs pedestrian symbolism to deepen the rumbling.

Sometimes mister I feel sunny and wild
Lord I love to see my baby smile
Then dark clouds come rolling by
Two faces have I

Until this point, our narrator has only hinted at darker doings. He’s happy and in love, but there’s a sense of something darker brewing. We don’t have to wait any longer for it though–the sky opens in the bridge.

One that laughs one that cries
One says hello one says goodbye
One does things I don’t understand
Makes me feel like half a man

And there it is–the Christie homage that also reveals Bruce’s newfound self-awareness: if I love you, I’ll hurt you if I can.

Expressed by his narrator, the key lines (Bruce’s key lines are almost always in the bridge): one does things I don’t understand, makes me feel like half a man. (Clever wordplay, that last part.)

With the villain now fully revealed, the struggle continues.

At night I get down on my knees and pray
Our love will make that other man go away
But he’ll never say goodbye
Two faces have I

Bruce has credited his wife’s love, patience, and understanding as foundational and essential to his ability to rise above his darker nature (although it wasn’t the wife he had at the time he wrote “Two Faces”). Even so, I suspect from Bruce’s more recent writings that he’d admit that other man never did say goodbye. That struggle likely continues to this day.

But the song isn’t over yet–and atypically for Bruce, it’s about to take a turn for the brighter.

Last night as I kissed you ‘neath the willow tree
He swore he’d take your love away from me
He said our life was just a lie
And two faces have I

Well go ahead and let him try

“Two Faces” ends with what I believe must be an intentional set of parallels. On the album, the song is paired with “Brilliant Disguise,” which immediately follows “Two Faces” as if they were opposite sides of a coin.

They might well be.

Both songs feature a symbolic willow tree. In “Two Faces,” our lovers kiss while our narrator’s darker half awaits his moment.  When we listen to “Brilliant Disguise” immediately after, we wonder whether the latter song’s narrator might in fact be the same person, whether the voice that calls his lover’s name might be his other face rather than another man.

But that’s not the only parallel: both songs end in a partial verse–a tactic Bruce uses to occasional and profound effect, playing with our expectations to leave us on an unsettled note. In “Two Faces,” it’s a simple well go ahead and let him try–a line of confidence and bravado undercut by its incompletion, its lack of a paired rhyme.

It tells us that while our narrator may be confident in this moment, he’ll need to be on guard against his darker half forever. Because he will try.

“Two Faces” made its live premiere not during the Tunnel of Love Express Tour, as is commonly believed, but at a surprise Halloween gig at McLoone’s Rum Runner in Sea Bright in 1987. Bruce and the band took to the stage in disguise that night, billing themselves as The Terrorists of Love and playing a mostly party-themed set.

Strangely enough, sandwiched into an encore that included “Born to Run,” “Fortunate Son,” “Lucille,” and “Twist and Shout” was the unlikely world debut of “Two Faces.”

(The crowd didn’t sound particularly impressed, but given the circumstances I can understand why. I’m guessing the costume theme of the evening might have inspired the song’s inclusion.)

“Two Faces” returned months later when the Tunnel of Love Express Tour kicked off, and it remained a nightly staple in the set list throughout most of the tour.

Following the Tunnel of Love Tour, “Two Faces” disappeared for almost two decades, returning for a handful of appearances during Bruce’s solo acoustic tour in support of Devils & Dust.

We haven’t heard from “Two Faces” since that 2005 tour. But it’s only been as long since its last outing as it was between the Tunnel of Love and Devils & Dust Tours, so don’t count it out for good.

After all, Bruce warned us about his other face: he’ll never say goodbye.

Two Faces
Recorded: January-April 1987
Released: Tunnel of Love (1987)
First performed: October 31, 1987 (Sea Bright, NJ)
Last performed: October 9, 2005 (Uniondale, NY)

Looking for your favorite Bruce song? Check our full index here. New entries every week!