Studio version
A one, two, three, four!
Whoa, whoa whoa, whoa whoa, hey, hey, hey whoa whoa
Whoa yeah
Whoa whoa
Hey!
Well I got a little girl down by the river
She keep me ???
I got a little girl, she keeps me every every night
Every night
She's like a fever, like a ???
And she keeps me all night
And now ??? in sight
Yes that's right
So come on, baby, down by the river
Come on, come on
Just come on, baby, down by the river
It's alright
Well baby, let me now protect you little darling
If you let me I'll be your friend
I know, baby, if you'll just let me in
Well every day just brings the same
Every day it brings your same games
But every night ???
Yes come on, down by the river
Oh come on, girl, it's alright
Well come on, down by the river
With me tonight
Big Man! Whoa!
Whoa!
[Spoken:] ???. This song should be one verse.
DOWN BY THE RIVER is a song written by Bruce Springsteen and rehearsed with the band in studio in 1977. The above lyrics are for the only circulating version of the song.
One studio rehearsal take of DOWN BY THE RIVER is in circulation. The recording is a bit rough, the vocals are buried in the mix making the lyrics difficult to understand in some places, and Springsteen cuts off mid-song.
The exact title of the song is unknown, but bootleggers have given it the titles "Down By The River" and "Say Sons". This website uses the title "Down By The River" because it's more logical ─ the lyric "down by the river" repeatedly appears in the song's chorus. As for "Say Sons", it's very possible that the actual title on the studio tape is "Sax Song" and the bootlegger who copied that title mistook "g" for an "s" and "x" for a "y". Several demo tape inlays reproduced in The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story box set were scribbled by an engineer whose "g" can easily be misread as an "s". See the two examples found on THE FAST SONG page.
"Sax Song" is a fitting descriptive title for DOWN BY THE RIVER ─ Clarence Clemons' saxophone is all over the song. The title "Sax Song" does appear in Sony's logs of Bruce Springsteen's studio sessions. See SAX SONG for more details. This means that it could very well be that DOWN BY THE RIVER was recorded on 14 Oct 1977 at The Record Plant in New York City, NY.
In his 2012 book E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days Of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Clinton Heylin mentions that DOWN BY THE RIVER "supposedly had the working title 'Say Sons'", and he relates it to "the provisional title, 'Old Sons', also logged as 'New Old Song', from September 27, [1977]." Based on the evidence at hands, it's a stretch to assume that DOWN BY THE RIVER and NEW OLD SONG, which appears under the 27 Sep 1977 date in Sony's logs of Bruce Springsteen's studio sessions, are the same song.
This studio version of DOWN BY THE RIVER can be found on several bootlegs, including The Definitive Darkness Outtakes Collection (E. St. Records) [disc 1, track 04] and Darkness Outtakes 1978 Vol. 1: The Iceman (Scorpio) [track 15]. The song is titled "Say Sons" (and noted as being also known as "Down By The River") on the former and "Down By The River" on the latter.
As far as it's known, Bruce Springsteen has never performed DOWN BY THE RIVER live.
As far as it's known, no artist has recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's DOWN BY THE RIVER.
Thanks Pete Russell for the research help.
Some of the above lyrics might be guessed or not correct, and they are open for revisions and corrections. If you can assist, or if have any additions or comments, please contact me via the below form or by email: .
List of available versions of DOWN BY THE RIVER on this website:
DOWN BY THE RIVER [Studio version]
