{"id":24475,"date":"1984-01-17T13:00:00","date_gmt":"1984-01-17T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=24475"},"modified":"2026-04-14T17:29:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:29:29","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-bells-of-san-salvador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1984\/01\/17\/roll-of-the-dice-bells-of-san-salvador\/","title":{"rendered":"Bells of San Salvador"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a fascinating one for fans of the obscure (with apologies to anyone who&#8217;s not).<\/p>\n<p>In the spring of 1981, Bruce and the E Street Band performed a cover of John Fogerty&#8217;s &#8220;Run Through the Jungle&#8221; at three European River Tour shows&#8211;the only times Bruce would ever play the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic.<\/p>\n<p>There was something odd about those performances, though, something fans of the original song almost certainly noticed: Bruce added verses that weren&#8217;t in the original song. You&#8217;ll hear them shortly after the 2:30 mark in the video below.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"758\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3XZjhZWbB34?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>The new verses begin with the lines:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Now me and Robert Williams<\/em><br \/>\n<em>We were out on Route Line 3<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Well last night they pulled him out of his house<\/em><br \/>\n<em>And shot him in the street<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Bruce gave no explanation for the new lyrics, but they certainly fit the anti-gun theme of the original song. In any event, after those three performances, those lyrics were never heard from again.<\/p>\n<p>Officially, anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Because shortly after the River Tour ended later that year, Bruce started working on a song about the May 9, 1979 massacre on the steps of the San Salvador Metropolitan Cathedral. More than eighteen protesters were killed or wounded that day, after police opened fire on them.<\/p>\n<p>Bruce called his song &#8220;Bells of San Salvador,&#8221; and the only traces of it that circulate widely are his (very) early home acoustic demos where he works on the song.<\/p>\n<div id=\"v-YMJABFlc-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='758' height='568' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/YMJABFlc?hd=1&amp;cover=1&amp;loop=0&amp;autoPlay=0&amp;permalink=1&amp;muted=0&amp;controls=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;useAverageColor=0&amp;preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" src='https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/video\/assets\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js'><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Now the interesting thing about those nine minutes of tinkering in the clip above is that Bruce has his title (he says it at one point), and he has a melody (clearly intended as a full-band track, as he vocalizes the percussion).<\/p>\n<p>But he doesn&#8217;t have lyrics yet. The lyrics he sings are clearly placeholders, because they have nothing to do with the events in El Salvador.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not at all unusual for Bruce to do this; there are many such known instances where Bruce borrows lyrics from another song to sing while he works on a new song&#8217;s music. What&#8217;s interesting here is that the lyrics Bruce borrows don&#8217;t belong to any of his known songs.<\/p>\n<p>But they\u00a0<em>do<\/em> closely resemble those new verses for &#8220;Run Through the Jungle&#8221; that Bruce sang just a few months before he sat down to work on &#8220;Bells of San Salvador.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Listen carefully to the clip above, and shortly after the three-minute mark you&#8217;ll hear:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>They took him from his house and killed him in the street<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The lyrics that follow expand a bit on what Bruce sang in &#8220;Run Through the Jungle,&#8221; so it&#8217;s quite possible (even likely) that Bruce was developing them for yet another song that we have yet to discover.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>And nobody knows the numbers<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Nobody knows the name<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>And they left him lying in his room<\/em><br \/>\n<em>They took all of his things<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Lying on the jailhouse floor, sir<\/em><br \/>\n<em>There&#8217;s the one who killed my friend and left him in the sun<\/em><\/p>\n<p>They almost certainly were never intended for &#8220;Bells of San Salvador,&#8221; but the dark violent imagery fit the tone of the music he was developing, so they made for great placeholders.<\/p>\n<p>Bruce eventually took the song to the E Street Band, and toward the end of the year they rehearsed it together. In the recording below, you can hear the band do a complete run through of the song. While the lyrics are just as muddy as in the acoustic demo (if not worse), the new arrangement is remarkable: sinister and foreboding and very much unlike any other track Bruce is known to have recorded to date.<\/p>\n<div id=\"v-j5xpaj99-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='758' height='426' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/j5xpaj99?hd=1&amp;cover=1&amp;loop=0&amp;autoPlay=0&amp;permalink=1&amp;muted=0&amp;controls=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;useAverageColor=0&amp;preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" src='https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/video\/assets\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js'><\/script><\/div>\n<p>At least one verse (or more likely the chorus) seems to be clear and distinct, though, and it&#8217;s enough to reveal that Bruce had indeed focused his song on those recent historical events:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>And nobody hears the clang of the swinging jailhouse door<\/em><br \/>\n<em>And nobody knows there&#8217;re people looking on<\/em><br \/>\n<em>And nobody knows the number and nobody knows the one<\/em><br \/>\n<em>With the bells of San Salvador ringing in the sun<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Whether Bruce ever finished the song and recorded it has yet to be revealed, but for hardcore Springsteen fans who enjoy tracing the development of Bruce&#8217;s songwriting, these early demos of &#8220;Bells of San Salvador&#8221; provide a fascinating glimpse in to the days immediately following the River Tour.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bells of San Salvador<br \/>\nRecorded:<\/strong> September &#8211; December 1981 (acoustic), April 15, 1982 (electric)<br \/>\n<strong>Never released<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Never performed<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\">\u00a9 February 2, 2021 \/ April 14, 2026<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New lyrics for a Creedence Clearwater Revival classic combine with tragic inspiration in El Salvador in this fascinating early home demo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3611,3],"tags":[3076,3077],"class_list":["post-24475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bitusa","category-roll-of-the-dice","tag-bells-of-san-salvador","tag-run-through-the-jugle"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/admin-ajax-55.jpg?fit=992%2C970&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w3Lk-6mL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1416,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/05\/cover-me-run-through-the-jungle\/","url_meta":{"origin":24475,"position":0},"title":"Cover Me: Run Through the Jungle","author":"Ken","date":"April 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A quiet, taut take on the CCR anti-gun classic rocker. \"200 millions guns are loaded...\" If only.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/jungle.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24825,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/23\/roll-of-the-dice-ruled-by-the-gun\/","url_meta":{"origin":24475,"position":1},"title":"Roll of the Dice: Ruled by the Gun","author":"Ken","date":"February 23, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"This lost Nebraska-era outtake features one of Bruce\u2019s early attempts to grapple with gun violence.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Roll of the Dice&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Roll of the Dice","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/roll-of-the-dice\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/rulesbygun.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/rulesbygun.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/rulesbygun.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/rulesbygun.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/rulesbygun.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3131,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/18\/roll-of-the-dice-cover-me-chimes-of-freedom\/","url_meta":{"origin":24475,"position":2},"title":"Roll of the Dice\/Cover Me: Chimes of Freedom","author":"Ken","date":"July 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When Bruce announced his participation in the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Tour in 1988, his re-arrangement and performance of this Bob Dylan classic became the title track of an EP released the following month.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/SPRINGSTEEN_CHIMES_5X5_site-700x700-e1531677200408.jpg?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":27624,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2006\/01\/18\/rotd-cover-me-bring-em-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":24475,"position":3},"title":"Bring &#8216;Em Home","author":"Ken","date":"January 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruce took inspiration from Pete Seeger's 1966 anti-war protest song and a Civil War classic and forged a heartfelt song of his own.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bringem.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bringem.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bringem.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bringem.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bringem.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25335,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/15\/cover-me-wedding-bells\/","url_meta":{"origin":24475,"position":4},"title":"Cover Me: Wedding Bells","author":"Ken","date":"February 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"In the summer of 1978, Bruce became fascinated with the music of Hank Williams, whose music quickly started surfacing in Bruce's soundchecks.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hank.png?fit=1089%2C885&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hank.png?fit=1089%2C885&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hank.png?fit=1089%2C885&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hank.png?fit=1089%2C885&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hank.png?fit=1089%2C885&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11846,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/13\/roll-of-the-dice-a-winters-revelation-in-9-illusions\/","url_meta":{"origin":24475,"position":5},"title":"Roll of the Dice: A Winter&#8217;s Revelation (In 9 Illusions)","author":"Ken","date":"August 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's take another trip back to Bruce's 1968 Notebook, where an 18-year-old Bruce Springsteen aims a bit too high this time.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Roll of the Dice&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Roll of the Dice","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/roll-of-the-dice\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/barren.jpg?fit=1024%2C746&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/barren.jpg?fit=1024%2C746&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, 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