{"id":18562,"date":"1980-01-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"1980-01-10T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=18562"},"modified":"2026-09-19T13:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T20:32:16","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-you-can-look-but-you-better-not-touch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1980\/01\/10\/roll-of-the-dice-you-can-look-but-you-better-not-touch\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a song with so little substance, “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)” sure takes on a lot of forms.<\/p>\n

The latter is probably due to the former: lyrically, “You Can Look” is one step short of a novelty song, so it lends itself to recasting and rearranging. Pretty much any arrangement is fair game, as long as it’s fun.<\/p>\n

So for today’s roll of the dice, we’ll forego our usual lyrical deep dive (“You Can Look” isn’t particularly deep, anyway) and instead trace the evolution of this River-era classic.<\/p>\n

Bruce started tinkering with “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)” at home in early 1979. In this earliest known demo recording, both the melody and lyrics are familiar enough to be recognizable, but both are far from their final form. The rhythm is more reggae than rock, and many of the lyrics are bluffed. (I love that the “Hey you! Get out of the car!” shout from the live arrangement is there from the beginning, even though it didn’t make the album.)<\/p>\n