{"id":6883,"date":"1980-08-18T11:00:18","date_gmt":"1980-08-18T18:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=6883"},"modified":"2026-09-25T09:52:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T16:52:52","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-stockton-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1980\/08\/18\/roll-of-the-dice-stockton-boys\/","title":{"rendered":"Stockton Boys"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early months of 1980, Bruce was still writing and tinkering with material for his upcoming album,\u00a0The River.\u00a0<\/em>He often retreated into his home studio in Holmdel, New Jersey, where alone with his guitar and tape recorder, he’d work and re-work lyrics, test different arrangements, and occasionally even graft lyrics onto completely different melodies.<\/p>\n

“Two Hearts” was written and finessed during this time, as was “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch).” A song called “Whitetown” wouldn’t see the light of day until it was officially released in the album’s anniversary box set in 2015; other songs like “Everybody Wants My Baby” and “You Gotta Be Kind” were relatively far along but remain unreleased to this day.<\/p>\n

And then there was “Stockton Boys” (and its twin sister, “Stockton Girls,” which we’ll discuss another day). The most underdeveloped of the songs Bruce grappled with during these sessions, “Stockton Boys” was discarded somewhere along the way to\u00a0The River\u00a0<\/em>(although some of its lyrics would show up a few years down the road on\u00a0Born in the U.S.A.).<\/em><\/p>\n

However, not just one but\u00a0four<\/em> home-recorded outtakes of a very work-in-progress “Stockton Boys” escaped into the wild, and it’s fascinating not just to hear this unreleased song, but also to listen in on Bruce’s songwriting process. Let’s eavesdrop…<\/p>\n