{"id":11793,"date":"2019-08-07T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=11793"},"modified":"2019-08-07T05:33:45","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T12:33:45","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-vibes-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/07\/roll-of-the-dice-vibes-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Roll of the Dice: Vibes Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Someday the dice will assign me “New York City Serenade” to write about, and we’ll go to town on it. It’s fitting that “Vibes Man” gets the Roll of the Dice<\/em> treatment first, however, because as we’re about to see, the story of “New York City Serenade” begins with (and largely derives from) this early demo.<\/p>\n

Throughout the first half of 1973, while Bruce was touring behind his first album, he frequently performed a work-in-progress “New York Song” (which we’ll also cover here someday). When Bruce’s second album dropped toward the end of the year with a song called “New York City Serenade,” fans (such few as there were back then) might have expected to hear a polished version of the “New York Song” they’d been hearing evolve on stage.<\/p>\n

But while “New York City Serenade” certainly traces its lineage in part to “New York Song,” the earlier prototype is dramatically different than the final product.<\/p>\n

“New York City Serenade” features characters and scenes not even hinted at in “New York Song.” Where did they come from?<\/p>\n

As it turns out, they came from “Vibes Man.”<\/p>\n

All the while he was performing “New York Song” on stage, Bruce had been working on another song with some familiar lyrics. In early 1973 (shortly after the release of\u00a0Greetings From Asbury Park<\/em>), he recorded it in the studio, accompanying himself on the piano.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a listen:<\/p>\n