Roll of the Dice: Last Night in Texas

Summer has arrived, and that means it’s time to break out the Bruce Springsteen Band recordings!

Why do I associate The Bruce Springsteen Band with summer? No idea–especially when some of their best gigs were in the dead of winter.

But something about the band’s proto-E Street, bluesy grooves begs to be played outdoors on a warm and sunny day. Which is sort of the way the band played this particular song to begin with: at an outdoor festival at Newark State College on May 15, 1971.

While the group included all the core BSB players, technically they were still a few weeks shy of calling themselves by that name. For one memorable pre-Memorial Day weekend, Bruce and the boys performed under the name Dr. Zoom & The Sonic Boom, with a set that veered a little more toward the recently defunct Steel Mill sound while verging ever more into the blues.

The set list that day included Bruce’s only known performance of an original song called “Last Night in Texas.” It may be a bit generous to call it an original song, however,  because Bruce built it on the chassis of a Sonny Boy Williamson blues single from 1963 called “One Way Out.”

“One Way Out” was a comic blues tale, the dilemma of a cheating lover trying desperately to escape out the bedroom window before getting caught. Bruce lifted the music from “One Way Out” but completely rewrote the lyrics, turning it into an itinerant musician’s travelogue as he prepares to move on to the next town.

The fifty-plus-year-old soundboard recording above is astoundingly clear, allowing us to fully appreciate the technical proficiency of the players–particularly some scorching Springsteen guitar solos (starting around the 2:30 mark) competing against David Sancious’ organ solos (starting at the four-minute mark), and an all-out jam (featuring Southside Johnny on harmonica) that breaks out a minute later.

As for the lyrics… well, like much of the Steel Mill and early Bruce Springsteen Band material, they’re sort of beside the point. They’re also a bit hard to decipher, but the fine folks at Springsteenlyrics.com gave it a shot and managed to get most of them. Several lines are still tough to hear, but like “One Way Out,” there’s not meant to be much substance here. “Last Night in Texas” is much more of a traditional blues (albeit in a rock arrangement) than Williamson’s original.

I said it’s the last night in Texas
Movin’ down to San Antone
It’s my last night in Texas
Then I’m out of San Antone
???
Going to leave old Texas and me alone

Well in South Dakota
Well I met ???
South Dakota yeah yeah
???
???
Spend the nights just ???

Well I’m moving on the westbound
Moving on the westbound train
Said I’m moving on the westbound
I’m on the westbound train
Once I get out of this town
Gonna never come back to Texas again

Last night in Texas and I’m on to San Antoine
Got no woman to treat me, no woman to call my own
???
God knows she won’t leave it alone

“Last Night in Texas” was hardly Bruce’s best or most original work (even for the time period) but it’s a fun rarity that was only captured on tape once.

Summer’s only just beginning, though, and we’ll have some stronger Bruce Springsteen Band songs to check out soon.

Last Night in Texas
Never recorded
Never released
First performed: May 15, 1971 (Union, NJ)
Last performed: May 15, 1971 (Union, NJ)

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