Unofficial studio version
Well there's a light on yonder mountain and it's calling me to shine
There's a girl over by the water fountain and she's asking to be mine
And ain't that Jesus, he's standing in the doorway with a buckskin jacket, boots and spurs so really fine
He says, "We need you up in Dodge City, son
'Cause there's oh so many bad boys trying to work the same line"
Well now if Jesus was the sheriff and I was the priest
If my lady was an heiress and my Mama was a thief
Oh and Papa rode shotgun for the Fargo line
There's still too many bad boys trying to work the same line
Now old sweet Virgin Mary, she runs the Holy Grail saloon
Where for a nickel they'll give you whiskey and a personally blessed balloon
And the Holy Ghost he's the host with the most, he runs the burlesque show
Where they let you in for free but oh hit you for your soul when you go
And Mary serves Mass on Sunday and then she sells her body on Monday
To the boot maker who will pay the highest price
But he don't know he got stuck with a loser, Mary's a stone junkie, what's more she's a boozer
She's only been made once or twice by some kind of magic
And well things ain't been the same in heaven ever since big bad Bobby came to town
He's been known to down eleven and then ask for another round
And me I got scabs on my knees from kneeling way too long
You gotta take a stand, be the man, up where you belong
And forget about the old friends and the old times
Because there's just too many new boys trying to work the same line
Now if Jesus was the sheriff and I were the priest
If my lady was an heiress and my Mama was a thief
Oh and Papa rode shotgun for the Fargo line
There's still too many outlaws trying to work the same line
Now there's a light on yonder mountain and it's calling me to shine
There's a girl by the water fountain and she's asking to be mine
And Jesus, he's standing in the doorway with his six guns drawn and ready to fan
He says, "We need you, son, up in Dodge City"
But I'm already overdue in Cheyenne
The above lyrics are for a studio take of IF I WAS THE PRIEST likely recorded around May-Jun 1972 at Pocketful Of Tunes Studios in New York City, NY. It features Springsteen solo on vocals and piano. The May-Jun 1972 sessions at Pocketful Of Tunes Studios were produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, and Cretecos took the role of recording engineer. See the album version for more details about the song.
1972 was a massive songwriting period for Bruce Springsteen. He wrote many songs in 1972, prior to the January 1973 release of his debut album. According to Brucebase, the vast majority of the known recordings of these songs were made during a 3-4 month period, between May and August 1972, though a few were recorded shortly beforehand and several weren't recorded until early 1973. Virtually all of these feature Springsteen completely solo, on either acoustic guitar or keyboards. Springsteen's manager Mike Appel and his partner Jim Cretecos selected some of this large pool of recordings in 1973 and 1974 and distributed them in Europe most notably to the UK-based music publishing agency Intersong Music Ltd. Some recordings were distributed on tape, others on acetates. Most of these acetates were manufactured at Media Sound in New York City, NY, and Angel Sound in Bedford, MA. Springsteen did not record at either of these locations. Intersong also pressed its own acetates for distribution within the industry. This audio gradually filtered into collector circles in the late seventies, often under the misnomer the "London Publishing Demos". According to Clinton Heylin 2012 book E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, the track-listing of the so-called "London demo-tape" is as follows: STREET QUEEN, SOUTHERN SUN, HENRY BOY, IF I WAS THE PRIEST, VIBES MAN, SONG FOR ORPHANS, SHE'S LEAVING, THE SONG, ARABIAN NIGHTS, and COWBOYS OF THE SEA. Heylin adds that four other songs were also lodged with Intersong, including NO NEED. The remaining three are probably TOKYO, MARIE, and VISITATION AT FORT HORN.
The unofficial studio version of IF I WAS THE PRIEST was released on the briefly-legal album Before The Fame (Pony Express Records, third issue only). See PRODIGAL SON for more details.
Before its release on the above album, the unofficial studio version of IF I WAS THE PRIEST had been circulating on several bootlegs, including The Demo Tapes (Traveling Productions) [track 04], The Early Years Volume One (Bagel Boys Records) [track 04], and The Unsurpassed Springsteen Volume 4 (Yellow Dog Records) [track 05].
List of available versions of IF I WAS THE PRIEST on this website:
IF I WAS THE PRIEST [Album version]
