{"id":16171,"date":"2020-02-25T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=16171"},"modified":"2023-01-01T13:48:19","modified_gmt":"2023-01-01T21:48:19","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-lucky-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/25\/roll-of-the-dice-lucky-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Roll of the Dice: Lucky Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the degree that fans think about “Lucky Man” at all (after all, it was a 1987 B-side that didn’t see an official album release for more than a decade–and even then it was buried as the very last track on Disc 3 of Tracks<\/em>), we tend to fall on two sides: those who think the title is sincere and those who think it’s ironic.<\/p>\n

Consider me on Team Sincere.<\/p>\n

Recorded late in the\u00a0Tunnel of Love<\/em> <\/a>recording sessions, Bruce’s songwriting had already taken a turn from the sweet (“Walk Like a Man<\/a>,” “Two for the Road<\/a>,” “The Honeymooners<\/a>,” and “The Wish<\/a>” were all recorded near the outset) to the sinister (“One Step Up<\/a>” and “Tunnel of Love<\/a>” were the last to be recorded at the end).<\/p>\n

Bruce will probably never make it clear exactly what was going on between him and first wife Julianne Phillips at the time, but the darker turn in his songwriting certainly suggests that something was accelerating. The idea of a rootless, itinerant driver savoring his freedom from romantic ties must have seemed like a pretty potent escape fantasy.<\/p>\n