{"id":33513,"date":"2022-04-16T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-16T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=33513"},"modified":"2024-01-03T15:19:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T23:19:08","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-roulette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/16\/roll-of-the-dice-roulette\/","title":{"rendered":"Roll of the Dice: Roulette"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On December 30, 1978, Three Mile Island Unit 2 began commercial operation near Harrisburg in western Pennsylvania. Eighty-eight days later, the nuclear reactor suffered a partial meltdown when its cooling system malfunctioned, releasing deadly radiation into the atmosphere. To this date, the Three Mile Island incident remains the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power history.<\/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\/Ev6IJOlROto?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 radiation leak happened on the day of the meltdown, March 28, 1979, but it wouldn&#8217;t be discovered until two days later. When word of the leak got out, local residents were advised to stay indoors &#8220;indefinitely&#8221; but were not evacuated.<\/p>\n<p>Confusingly, however, Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh advised all pregnant women and small children within a five-mile radius of the accident to leave the area. The mixed messages created civic distrust and caused a panic, and within days over 100,000 residents had fled the area.<\/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\/rCJbmUGoXXU?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>News of the reactor meltdown gripped not just local residents but the nation and the world in fear.<\/p>\n<p>I vividly remember my family glued to the somber newscasts that week. I was ten years old and lived about a hundred miles from the accident site, and no one really knew or trusted at the time what distance was considered safe. Nowhere in Pennsylvania felt particularly safe, and New Jersey seemed a bit too close for comfort, too.<\/p>\n<p>Those of us who lived in the area paid <em>very<\/em> close attention to official updates, and there was a distinct sense that the people in charge either didn&#8217;t know or weren&#8217;t admitting exactly how concerned we should be.<\/p>\n<p>Bruce Springsteen shared that distrust, and within a few days of the accident, he&#8217;d already written a song about it. He recorded the acoustic home demo below while the news was still playing out on television screens across the country.<\/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\/KecBkkUKM-c?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>Bruce continued working on his song that week, and on April 3rd&#8211;just four days after the governor&#8217;s alarming press conference and evacuation order\/non-order&#8211;he assembled the E Street Band in the studio to take a crack at a still in progress but much more developed version.<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-33513-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/208-Roulette-1.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/208-Roulette-1.mp3\">https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/208-Roulette-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Bruce&#8217;s song was called &#8220;Roulette,&#8221; after the way state officials were taking chances and placing bets on the safety of its residents. &#8220;Roulette&#8221; captured the sense of fear, panic, and distrust that was prevalent in the immediate aftermath of the accident&#8211;distrust bordering on paranoia.<\/p>\n<p>Even in its earliest full-band version, &#8220;Roulette&#8221; kicks off with a terrifying drum entrance by Max Weinberg on the tom-toms and a suspenseful guitar riff lifted from Magazine&#8217;s &#8220;Shot by Both Sides.&#8221;<\/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\/Qu3R-H5on1s?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 final version of &#8220;Roulette&#8221; became the first song recorded for the album that would become <em>The River,\u00a0<\/em>and while it wouldn&#8217;t make the final cut, its punk spirit and live energy set the tone for much of that record. No less than ten confirmed mixes were created, and the three official releases of the song (on the B-side of the 1988 single for &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/17\/roll-of-the-dice-one-step-up\/\">One Step Up<\/a>,&#8221; the 1998\u00a0<em>Tracks\u00a0<\/em>box set, and the disc of outtakes on the 2015\u00a0<em>The Ties That Bind\u00a0<\/em>box set) are all different mixes of the same recording.<\/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\/_QWRFI3M0mo?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>With such urgency, relevance, power, and detail, it&#8217;s surprising that it took almost a decade before fans heard &#8220;Roulette&#8221; either on disc or on stage. (It was released on vinyl and debuted in concert during the same week in February 1988.)<\/p>\n<div id=\"v-t4ks0AI4-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='758' height='568' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/t4ks0AI4?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>That&#8217;s likely because Bruce was never fully comfortable with the visceral paranoia that informed its creation. &#8220;I may just have gotten afraid,&#8221; he told Mark Hagen in a 1999 interview for <em>Mojo. <\/em>&#8220;It went a little over the top, which is what&#8217;s good about it. In truth it probably should have gotten put on. It would have been one of the best things on the record and it was just a mistake at the time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s not wrong, on any count: &#8220;Roulette&#8221;\u00a0is <em>very<\/em> much over the top, but it&#8217;s that authentic fear and distrust that makes the song resonate so strongly.<\/p>\n<p>The song takes off in mid-flight: our narrator&#8211;a Riker&#8217;s Island fireman (Bruce seems to have transplanted the setting to someplace a little closer to home)&#8211;is fleeing town. Our narrator packed his family and their belongings so quickly that the yard is still filled with toys and their home unprotected.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>We left the toys out in the yard<\/em><br \/>\n<em>I took my wife and kids and I left my home unguarded<\/em><br \/>\n<em>We packed what we could into the car<\/em><br \/>\n<em>No one here knows how it started<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Well suddenly everything was just so out of control<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Now I want some answers, mister, I need to know<\/em><br \/>\n<em>I hear all the talk but I don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re saying<\/em><br \/>\n<em>But I think I got a good idea of the game that you&#8217;re playing<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Roulette, that&#8217;s the name<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, that&#8217;s the game now<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, I don&#8217;t believe what they&#8217;re saying<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, everybody&#8217;s playing<\/em><\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s fleeing, but he doesn&#8217;t know what from, or why. He wants answers, but none are forthcoming. Most of all, though, he wants to hear something he can trust.\u00a0All he gets, though, are empty reassurances, mixed messages, and the distinct sense that their lives and health are nothing but a game of chance to the people in charge.<\/p>\n<p>As the verse builds towards the first chorus, suspicion and distrust give way to frustration, and in the second verse outright anger.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>I grew up here on this street<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Where nothing moves, just a strange breeze<\/em><br \/>\n<em>In a town full of worthless memories<\/em><br \/>\n<em>There&#8217;s a shadow in my backyard<\/em><br \/>\n<em>I&#8217;ve got a house full of things that I can&#8217;t touch<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Well all those things they won&#8217;t do me much good now<\/em><br \/>\n<em>I was a fireman out at Riker&#8217;s, I did my job<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Mister, I&#8217;ve been cheated, I feel like I&#8217;ve been robbed<\/em><br \/>\n<em>I&#8217;m the big expendable, my life&#8217;s just cancelled null and void<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Well what you gonna do about your new boy<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Roulette, you&#8217;re playing with my life<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, with my kids and my wife<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, every day the stakes get bigger<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, a different finger on the trigger\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Our narrator has done his best to live the right way; he got up every morning and went to work each day as a public servant. But in the wake of the accident, he&#8217;s got nothing to show for it but exile from a contaminated home. There&#8217;s no promised land on the horizon, and he demands answers from the state&#8217;s &#8220;mister&#8221; &#8212; the authorities on whom his family&#8217;s safety is dependent, who seem to take neither urgency in nor accountability for the situation.<\/p>\n<p>If any one thing about &#8220;Roulette&#8221; was responsible for its exclusion from\u00a0<em>The River<\/em>, it was likely the final verse, which veers away from the visceral emotion that carries the song through its first verses and chase scene bridge and dives headfirst into a police state like something out of speculative fiction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Down by the river that talks<\/em><br \/>\n<em>The night speaks in searchlights and shortwave radios squawk<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Well the police patrol the streets<\/em><br \/>\n<em>But I&#8217;ve left behind the man I used to be<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Everything he believed and all that belonged to me<\/em><br \/>\n<em>I tried to find my way out to somewhere where I thought it&#8217;d be safe<\/em><br \/>\n<em>They stopped me at the roadblock they put up on the interstate<\/em><br \/>\n<em>They put me in detention but I broke loose and then I ran<\/em><br \/>\n<em>They said they just want to ask me a few questions but I think they had other plans<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Now I don&#8217;t know who to trust and I don&#8217;t know what I can believe<\/em><br \/>\n<em>They say they want to help me but with the stuff they keep on saying<\/em><br \/>\n<em>I think those guys just wanna keep on playing<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Despite its melodrama, though, the final verse of &#8220;Roulette&#8221; has some of Bruce&#8217;s rawest, punkiest vocals on record. All of the verses are constructed such that the lyrics never quite fit&#8211;Bruce is forced to stumble and tumble headfirst through them, a deliberate songwriting decision that conveys the narrator&#8217;s panic.<\/p>\n<p>But the second half of the final verse (extended by two lines to milk the moment) is absolute desperation. Our narrator is lost in his paranoia, and we sense that last thread&#8211;the one that&#8217;s been fraying throughout the song&#8211;is about to snap.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Roulette, with my life<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, with my kids and my wife<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, the bullet&#8217;s in the chamber<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, who&#8217;s the unlucky stranger<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, surprise, you&#8217;re dead<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, the gun&#8217;s to your head<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, the bullet&#8217;s spinning in the chamber<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Roulette, pull the trigger, feel the click<\/em><br \/>\n<em>No further danger<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Roulette&#8221; ends on an unsettling note, its titular metaphor fully revealed as Russian roulette, and it&#8217;s our narrator&#8217;s turn to spin.\u00a0<em>No further danger<\/em>&#8211;that final line echoes the unconvincing reassurance of the state authorities but implies a gruesome irony. As Max&#8217;s pounding tomtom heartbeat fades us out, we&#8217;re unsure whether we&#8217;re out of danger because we won&#8230; or because we lost.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Bruce played &#8220;Roulette&#8221; regularly throughout the Tunnel of Love Express Tour, debuting it on stage just two days before it appeared in record stores, but he wouldn&#8217;t play it again until very late in the Reunion Tour, as a one-off in Hartford.<\/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\/93GEG1Q9JiY?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>It made a pair of cameos at the tail end of the Rising Tour, too.<\/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\/1RIlLmRc_8M?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>&#8220;Roulette&#8221; seems to make an appearance or three in every E Street Band tour, in fact&#8211;just enough to still be considered a true rarity (it&#8217;s only been played fifteen times in the last twenty years) but frequently enough to remain hopeful if it&#8217;s still on your chase list.<\/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\/ypEmmZJXg10?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>Bruce never released &#8220;Roulette&#8221; on an official album, relegating it instead to outtake box set collections. Still, it&#8217;s importance as a milestone in Bruce&#8217;s career can&#8217;t be understated. Not only was it the first song recorded for\u00a0<em>The River,\u00a0<\/em>it also established an edgier, timelier, and more topical turn in his songwriting that he would lean into over the years to come.<\/p>\n<p>As for the incident that inspired the song, over the next six months anti-nuclear protests grew in frequency, size, and urgency not just in America but around the world. In September, the movement peaked in a New York City rally that drew more than 200,000 people&#8211;lured in part, no doubt, by a concurrent &#8220;No Nukes&#8221; concert series at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n<p>Bruce headlined two of those concerts, but despite his continued concern for the cause, the new song that signaled his support didn&#8217;t make its debut that night. It would still be a few years before Bruce would seem comfortable performing such topical material. That time was coming, though, and it would mark an inflection point in his career.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Roulette<br \/>\nRecorded:<\/strong> April 1979<br \/>\n<strong>Released:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>One Step Up <\/em>(B-side, 1988),<em>Tracks\u00a0<\/em>(1998),\u00a0<em>The River: Outtakes<\/em> (2015)<br \/>\n<strong>First performed:<\/strong> February 25, 1988 (Worcester, MA)<br \/>\n<strong>Last performed:<\/strong> July 5, 2016 (Milan, Italy)<\/p>\n<p>Looking for your favorite Bruce song? Check our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/roll-of-the-dice-album-by-album\/\">full index<\/a>. New entries every week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just days after the worst accident in American nuclear power history, Bruce wrote his most urgent and topical song yet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33952,"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":[3],"tags":[201,2790,188],"class_list":["post-33513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-roll-of-the-dice","tag-roulette","tag-the-river-outtakes","tag-tracks"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/roulette.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w3Lk-8Ix","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56305,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/28\/kingdom-of-days-march-28-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":33513,"position":0},"title":"March 28","author":"Ken","date":"March 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"On this date in history: the live debut of \"Raise Your Hand,\" the live recording of \"Be True\" for Chimes of Freedom, and Springsteen on Broadway reaches its 100th show. More highlights and lots of great video inside!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Kingdom of Days&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Kingdom of Days","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/kingdom-of-days\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/detroit88.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/detroit88.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/detroit88.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/detroit88.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/detroit88.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21116,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/22\/roll-of-the-dice-mississippi\/","url_meta":{"origin":33513,"position":1},"title":"Roll of the Dice: Mississippi","author":"Ken","date":"September 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Long before \"The Ghost of Tom Joad,\" nineteen-year-old Bruce Springsteen adapted another great work of literature into song.","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\/2020\/09\/huckfinn.jpeg?fit=1200%2C950&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/huckfinn.jpeg?fit=1200%2C950&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/huckfinn.jpeg?fit=1200%2C950&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/huckfinn.jpeg?fit=1200%2C950&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/huckfinn.jpeg?fit=1200%2C950&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13192,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/25\/roll-of-the-dice-you-gotta-fight-for-what-you-want\/","url_meta":{"origin":33513,"position":2},"title":"Roll of the Dice: You Gotta Fight (For What You Want)","author":"Ken","date":"September 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Possibly a precursor to \"Two Hearts,\" \"You Gotta Fight (For What You Want)\" provides a peek into the reggae-inspired early home demos that led to Bruce's 1980 album, The River.","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\/10\/you-gotta-fight.jpg?fit=892%2C896&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/you-gotta-fight.jpg?fit=892%2C896&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/you-gotta-fight.jpg?fit=892%2C896&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/you-gotta-fight.jpg?fit=892%2C896&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1015,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1992\/02\/02\/roll-of-the-dice-better-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":33513,"position":3},"title":"Better Days","author":"Ken","date":"February 2, 1992","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Better Days\" is one of the happiest songs in Bruce's catalog. 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