Roll of the Dice: Man’s Job

In his autobiography and Broadway show,  Bruce Springsteen spent considerable time describing the profound influence of Elvis Presley on a young, impressionable future rock icon. And of course, the story of Bruce and Stevie’s attempted Graceland break-in has long since become legend.

But if you want to see where Bruce truly drew inspiration for his stage persona, you’ll need to travel only a few short miles north from Graceland to Stax Records, where Sam Moore and Dave Prater were at the peak of their popularity just as the fifteen-year-old Springsteen joined his very first band.

What made Sam and Dave so great? Let’s watch as Bruce schools us.

In the studio, Sam and Dave were a force to be reckoned with. On stage, no one could touch them. Trust me and watch these clips below. If you can’t see the seeds of Bruce’s stage presence in Sam Moore, you’re not paying attention.

Bruce was a huge fan of the Stax/Volt sound, but he was a student of Sam Moore. He saw him perform three times with Prater, and each time he paid close attention to Moore’s moves, patter, and bandleading.

By the time Bruce’s recording career started in earnest, Sam and Dave were already on the decline, and the last time they came through Asbury Park, only a handful of appreciative fans came out to pay their respects. Bruce was among the small crowd at The Fast Lane that day, and he recalls being very affected by the unjustly small turnout.

Sam and Dave split up not long after that show at The Fast Lane, and Dave died only a few years after that, in a 1988 car crash.

A year later, Bruce recorded his most Stax-inspired song yet, a Sam and Dave-styled soul romp about a man’s pledge to love his woman right. In fact, if not for a mid-song twist, “Man’s Job” would basically be a rewrite of Sam and Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Comin’.”

Bruce had the right team to pull it off when he recorded it in the waning days of 1989: himself on guitar and Roy Bittan on keys, with new additions Jeff Porcaro (of Toto fame) on drums and Randy Jackson (yes, American Idol’s Randy Jackson) providing the song’s light-on-its-feet bassline. But something was missing from the track, and Bruce knew what it was: his vocals were rooted in the earth, and he needed some counterbalance to lift the song to the heavens.

So in January 1990, he added two backing vocalists to the mix, one of whom was Bruce’s former idol himself. But if you’re going to pay proper homage to the Sam and Dave sound, you can’t stop with Sam–so Bruce called in Ry Cooder’s frequent backing vocalist Bobby King to play the part of Dave.

The result was one of the only official tracks where Bruce Springsteen is outshined by his backup singers.

Although it was never released as a single, “Man’s Job” became one of the standout tracks of Bruce’s Human Touch album in 1992. For its first half, it plays like a straight-up Stax classic, reimagined for a more modern, less macho era.

Well you can go out with him, play with all of his toys
But taking care of you darling ain’t for one of the boys
Oh there’s something in your soul that he’s gonna rob
And loving you baby, loving you darling
Loving you woman is a man’s man’s job

Loving you’s a man’s job baby
Loving you’s a man’s job

The conceit of “Man’s Job” is the play on the title phrase. Bruce liberates a term commonly used to gender stereotype physical labor and instead applies it to the hard emotional work required to forge and maintain a loving, supportive relationship.

(Notice, too, how Bruce telegraphs as he builds toward the climax, progressing from the infantilizing “baby” to diminutive “darling” to respectful “woman” in the span of a few breaths.)

The second verse travels similar ground as the first:

Well now his kisses may thrill those other girls that he likes
But when it comes to treating a real woman right
Well of all of his tricks no they won’t be enough
‘Cause loving you baby, loving you woman
Loving you darling is a man’s man’s job

But as usual, it’s the bridge that gives away the game.

You’re dancing with him, he’s holding you tight
I’m standing here waiting to catch your eye
Your hand’s on his neck as the music sways
All my illusions slip away

Notice how Bruce’s warm, smooth vocals slip away as he enters the bridge, along with his narrator’s cool confidence. His voice arches with anxiety as we discover that the entire song until this point has been the narrator’s inner monologue as he watches from the sidelines as his love interest draws close to another.

If he’s trying to psych himself up, it’s not working. Our would-be hero is rooted in place, unable to work up the courage to ask her to dance let alone prove his love.

Now if you’re looking for a hero, someone to save the day
Well darling my feet they’re made of clay
But I’ve got something in my soul I wanna give it up
But getting up the nerve, getting up the nerve
Getting up the nerve is a man’s man’s job

The last lines leave us with a cliffhanger: he seems poised to move, but will he? Bruce seems content to let us decide for ourselves.

Like any true Stax-inspired song, “Man’s Job” only comes fully alive on stage. Luckily, Bobby King joined Bruce’s touring band for his 1992-93 World Tour, so Bruce was able to recapture the studio magic each night.

Like much of Bruce’s early nineties material, “Man’s Job” disappeared from the set list when the E Street Band reformed. Late in the Rising Tour, however, Bruce seemed to rediscover his “missing years,” and in one of the very last shows of the tour, “Man’s Job” made its E Street debut.

For a decade, though, that was it. Other than a few private benefit outings, it would be ten years before “Man’s Job” would make one of Bruce’s set lists again. That finally happened late in the Wrecking Ball Tour, in Mönchengladbach, Germany.

With the benefit of the E Street Horns (an essential Stax element) and a fully prepared band (they’d sound-checked it earlier), that performance of “Man’s Job” may be the definitive one.

“Man’s Job” flies under the radar in E Street Nation. It doesn’t surface on many “Best of” lists, and you’ll rarely spot it on a request sign. But it’s a sweet, infectious trifle that deserves more recognition (and outings) than it gets.

Man’s Job
Recorded: December 1989-January 1990
Released: Human Touch (1992)
First performed: May 6, 1992 (New York City, NY)
Last performed: July 13, 1992 (Werchter, Belgium)

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