LOSIN' KIND^©

Version #2

My name is Frank Davis, drive a Dixie 109
I was out on Highway 17, just south of the Camden Line
It was down there in the heart of Wilsonville where I met my fate
She was standing outside the bar room said she was waiting for a date
But I knew that that was just a line
And I knew I was messin' with a losin' kind

Well I knew what we were both doin' and I knew that you can't win
But when the light turned green, I reached across the seat, popped the lock and she slid in
She said she liked Mexican music, she knew a place if I had the time
Well we had a few drinks and we danced a while, I pulled her close, she didn't mind
And what I knew kinda slipped my mind
And I couldn't resist her messin' with the losin' kind

Well we drove around in my Buick, getting drunk and having fun
Well we ended up at this Best Western out on Highway 101
It was around 3 A.M. we went out to this empty little roadside bar
It was there the cash register was open, it was there I hit that guy too hard
But I knew when I hit him for the second time
That one attracts the other when you're the losin' kind

Well I grabbed her hand to get out of there and I felt like I was gonna be sick
And half hour later the sleet started coming down and that highway got pretty slick
I seen some lights in my rearview mirror, I guess I panicked and I gave her a gun
Well then I wrapped us around a telephone pole south on Highway 101
Well she just stumbled out onto the bank and sat down in a pout
Well I kicked out the driver side window but buddy when I got out
Well all I had to greet me was a highway patrolman's .45
He looked at the wreck and then he said "Son you're lucky to be alive"
Well sir I'll think that one over if you don't mind
Now luck ain't much good to you when it's the losin' kind

Page last updated: 08 Sep 2007

Music and lyrics by Bruce Springsteen, this Nebraska acoustic home demo has quite the same story as HIGHWAY 29 from The Ghost Of Tom Joad album. A man meets a woman, pulls a holdup, kills a man then crashes the car, yet all the time he knows he is paving his own path to self-destruction. When the moment of realization comes, it is far too late to save him. The melody is very similar to HIGHWAY PATROLMAN.

Two recordings of this song are in circulation:

• Version #1 was recorded in fall 1981 (sometime between mid-Sep and Dec), at Thrill Hill East, Springsteen's home studio in Colt's Neck, NJ. Check out version #1 for more details.
• Version #2 is the only take that surfaced from the three that were recoded on or around 03 Jan 1982 at Thrill Hill East.

The two versions are very similar except for some few lyrical differences. Version #1 is a lot less complete and more fragmented than version #2 (check out version #1). The work-in-progress title for LOSIN' KIND was THE ANSWER, under which version #1 is more known.

Springsteen recorded that home demo (version #2) on a four-track cassette recorder, which became the famous Nebraska demo tape of Jan 1982:

Following The River tour, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band were supposed to start recording the next album in New York City in February 1982. Bruce decided to record multi-channel, professional sounding, finished demos of some songs he had written during the period. He felt the upcoming band sessions would progress faster than they had for his previous three albums if he records these finished demos and demonstrates them to The E Street Band.

To achieve his goal, in December 1981, he asks his guitar technician, Mike Batlan, to set up a no frills "porta-studio" in a spare room of his home in Colt's Neck, NJ. Some modification work was done to the room making it more receptive to achieving a decent sound. Batlan purchased a Teac Tascom (Series 144) 4-track cassette recorder, two SM57's microphones, and two microphone stands. The sound was mixed through an old Gibson Echoplex, and an old Panasonic boom box acted as the mix-down deck.

Springsteen recorded during the first few days of January, with most of the songs cut in one all day/night session on 03 Jan 1982. There were 15 songs recorded on tape, and some of them were recorded 2 or 3 times in slightly different arrangements. The tape was never conceived to result in a commercially released album, as the songs were recorded by the E Street Band with multi-instrument arrangements, during what's known as the "Electric Nebraska Session". However two or three months later, Springsteen recorded two additional songs (MY FATHER'S HOUSE and THE BIG PAYBACK) at home on the same equipment – thus making a total of 17 different songs.

Most of the E Street Band arrangements of these songs were discarded and the original solo demos (including HIGHWAY PATROLMAN) from the tape were released on Nebraska.

The tape included 3 takes of the song, of which only one has surfaced. The above lyrics correspond to that circulating take. It is available on several bootlegs, including The Lost Masters Vol. I (Labour Of Love Records) and How Nebraska Was Born (Godfather Records).

As far as it's known, this outtake was never played live.

Recording info taken from Brucebase. Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake from BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.

Liner notes from the How Nebraska Was Born bootleg booklet:

Called "The Answer" in the first demos, this song got a shape in '82 under the name "Losin' Kind" and remains one of the best song excluded from the album. Springsteen prefers to include "Highway Patrolman" instead, one of the best song on Nebraska indeed, with too much lyrics similarity to "Losin' Kind" to save both.