Live 01 Sep 1971 version
Got a good woman, yeah she was looking pretty fine
Yeah, we're gonna sing the same song, mama, if we're gonna get along
There's just one thing I gotta say
I can make rain fall from a cloudless sky
I can make a bluebird forget how to fly
I can call up a river to flood your home
I can make a good girl go wrong
So you better be nice to me baby
You better be nice to me baby
You better be nice to me baby
So I'll be nice to you
I can kill at a distance of forty feet
I can steal the honey from a honeybee
I can stop a train dead with a look in my eye
I can make a grown man fall to his knees and cry
So you better be nice to me baby
You better be nice to me baby
You better be nice to me baby
So I'll be nice to you
David on the piano.
[David Sancious solo]
Little Steve Van Zandt.
[Steven Van Zandt solo]
I can turn desert land into a paradise
I can take a thorny girl and I can make her nice
I can steal all the lightning from the sky above
I can make anyone fall right in love
I can swim the ocean in one week flat
I can climb a mountain with a hand behind my back
I can make a millionaire throw his money away
I can hide that cargo to Bombay
I'll put you out on an eagle into outer space
I'm one man and I won the human race
I can shake you with love right down to your soul
I can make Lawrence Welk go rock and roll
I can make a whole army turn around and run
I can bend the barrel of my dad's shotgun
I can do most anything I set my mind to
And honey, I'm setting my mind to you
So you better be nice to me
Yeah you better be nice to me baby
Oh you better be nice to me baby
So I'll be nice to you
Now you better be nice to me baby
Oh you better be nice to me baby
So you better be nice to me baby
Now you better be nice to me baby
Be nice to me baby
Oh you better to be nice to me baby
I said you better to be nice to me baby
I said you better to be nice to me baby
You better to be nice to me baby
So I'll be nice to you
[Spoken outro:] Thank you, thank you very much.
YOU BETTER BE NICE TO ME, BABY is an unreleased song written by Bruce Springsteen probably around 1971. He performed it live in 1971 with The Bruce Springsteen Band.
The above lyrics are for a live 01 Sep 1971 performance of YOU BETTER BE NICE TO ME, BABY at Garfield Park in Long Branch, NJ, with The Bruce Springsteen Band.
This was a triple-bill outdoor show orchestrated by Tinker West's Blah Productions. The show was headlined by The Bruce Springsteen Band (Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, David Sancious, Garry Tallent, and Vini Lopez). The support acts were originally Sweet Chariot and Tumbleweed, but it appears that the latter was replaced at the last minute by The Joe Hagstrom Squeak Band. A 66-minute fair-quality audience recording from this show is in circulation among collectors. However, this performance apparently lasted nearly two hours, so there's quite a bit missing and discernible edits can be heard in between songs on the audio source.
YOU BETTER BE NICE TO ME, BABY is known to have been performed at least once in Bruce Springsteen's early years (pre-October 1972), on 01 Sep 1971 in Long Branch, NJ. Very little is known about shows from this early period, and therefore, the song may have been played on some more dates.
As far as it's known, no artist has recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's YOU BETTER BE NICE TO ME, BABY.
Thanks Ken Rosen at E Street Shuffle blog for the lyrics help. Much of the above information about the 01 Sep 1971 show is taken from Brucebase.
If you have any additional information about this song, or any corrections to the above lyrics, please contact me via the below form or by email: .
List of available versions of YOU BETTER BE NICE TO ME, BABY on this website:
YOU BETTER BE NICE TO ME, BABY [Live 01 Sep 1971 version]