Roulette

Roulette

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Disc 2 track 3 of Tracks, 1998.

Tracks (1998)
- Bruce Springsteen: vocals, guitar
- Roy Bittan: piano
- Clarence Clemons: saxophone, percussion
- Danny Federici: organ, glockenspiel
- Garry Tallent: bass
- Steven Van Zandt: guitar, backing vocals
- Max Weinberg: drums

ROULETTE - V1	1:30	LM-4 / ATMF / PYP / MT2
ROULETTE - V2	2:28	DROC1 / RRR / RO
ROULETTE - V3	3:39	LM-4 / LMEC1 / PYP / SA / DBTR
ROULETTE - V4a	3:37	DROC2 / SMM / BTR
ROULETTE - V4b	3:29	DBR
ROULETTE - V4c	3:46	DROC1 / RO
ROULETTE - V4d	3:47	RO
ROULETTE - V4e	3:45	RO / RN
ROULETTE - V4f	3:39	ATMF
ROULETTE - V4g	3:34	ATMF
ROULETTE - V4h	3:43	1988 single / BACK
ROULETTE - V4i	3:47	TRACKS
ROULETTE - V4j	3:48	RIVER: OUTTAKES

Note: V1 is an acoustic demo recorded a few days after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident on March 28, 1979, which inspired the song. Recording sessions for Album #5 began at Power Station studios on April 3, with engineer Bob Clearmountain. Multiple takes of "Roulette" were recorded over the first two days, followed by several days of mixing by Clearmountain and Springsteen. The song was set aside until April 1980, when Springsteen, engineer Neil Dorfsman, and his co-producers Landau and Van Zandt were reviewing all completed masters, and recording or re-recording instrumental and vocal tracks as needed. Over April 11 and 12 new "Roulette" tracks were recorded, including vocals, and Dorfsman mixed or remixed some of the tapes. He recalls that the new vocals were discarded in favor of the original April 1979 tracks. Toby Scott mixed it as one of the five extra tracks designated for b-sides, etc., after finishing the twenty primary tracks Springsteen had designated for The River.

V2 is incomplete, with double-tracked lead vocals and a slower tempo. The lyrics show some variations to later versions, and the tape fades out during the guitar solo. The vocal in V3 is not finished, while V4 is the master recorded in April 1979, with multiple vocal, keyboard, guitar and other instruments recorded in 1979–80 at Springsteen's direction, for dubbing and mixing. For unknown reasons, many of the mixes created by Clearmountain, Dorfsman, and Scott leaked out to bootleggers, in addition to the officially released b-side and remixed album cuts on Tracks and The Ties That Bind 2015 anniversary box. There are at least eight different mix variations in circulation, and more exist in private collections. The Tracks mix features more snare drum but less guitar than the mix found on the 1988 b-side to "One Step Up". Bruce states in his autobiography that "Roulette" was recorded shortly after the MUSE benefits of September 21 and 22, 1979, but that is incorrect. In a 1998 interview with Mojo magazine, Springsteen bared his soul. "It was the first song we cut…and maybe later on, I thought it was too specific. I may have just gotten afraid—it went a little over the top, which is what's good about it. In truth it should have probably gotten put on. It would have been one of the best things on the record."

^{Studio Sessions: The River}

We left the toys out in the yard
I took my wife and kids and I left my home unguarded
We packed what we could into the car
No one here knows how it started
Well suddenly everything was just so out of control
Now I want some answers, mister, I need to know
I hear all the talk but I don't know what you're saying
But I think I got a good idea of the game that you're playing

Roulette, that's the name
Roulette, that's the game now
Roulette, I don't believe what they're saying
Roulette, everybody's playing

I grew up here on this street
Where nothing moves, just a strange breeze
In a town full of worthless memories
There's a shadow in my backyard
I've got a house full of things that I can't touch
Well all those things they won't do me much good now
I was a fireman out at Riker's, I did my job
Mister, I've been cheated, I feel like I've been robbed
I'm the big expendable, my life's just cancelled null and void
Well what you gonna do about your new boy

Roulette, you're playing with my life
Roulette, with my kids and my wife
Roulette, every day the stakes get bigger
Roulette, a different finger on the trigger

Down by the river that talks
The night speaks in searchlights and shortwave radios squawk
Well the police patrol the streets
But I've left behind the man I used to be
Everything he believed and all that belonged to me
I tried to find my way out to somewhere where I thought it'd be safe
They stopped me at the roadblock they put up on the interstate
They put me in detention but I broke loose and then I ran
They said they just want to ask me a few questions but I think they had other plans
Now I don't know who to trust and I don't know what I can believe
They say they want to help me but with the stuff they keep on saying
I think those guys just wanna keep on playing

Roulette, with my life
Roulette, with my kids and my wife
Roulette, the bullet's in the chamber
Roulette, who's the unlucky stranger
Roulette, surprise, you're dead
Roulette, the gun's to your head
Roulette, the bullet's spinning in the chamber
Roulette, pull the trigger, feel the click
No further danger

^{Visit SpringsteenLyrics.com for other versions of this song.}