Some songs from the Bruce Springsteen Band era feel less like a snapshot and more like a signpost.
This one is both.
Written in early 1971 and performed at least four times that summer, “Come On Billy, Break Out the Wine” is both a wonderfully captured recording of the full Bruce Springsteen Band (including horn section and backup singers) at their brassy best and also a fascinating sneak peak at themes and tropes Springsteen would explore over the next few years.
Sometimes referred to on bootlegs as “Nothing Can Stop Me Now,” “Come On Billy, Break Out the Wine” features a narrator desperate to escape his one-horse town with his friend Billy.
Come on Billy, won’t you break out the wine
I wanna see you pop that cork
Today’s the day that we’ve all been waiting for
Now I’m gonna get down to some serious celebrating, We ain’t been out of this one horse town
Since I was dropped off by the stork
Nothing can stop me now
Got my ticket to New York
Oh nothing can stop me boy
No no nothing can stop me now
It’s never made clear what the celebration’s about–graduation, perhaps? Or maybe it’s simply the purchase of a bus ticket that transforms our hero from dreamer to traveler.
Regardless, he and Billy are eager to blow out of town. For our narrator, at least, it’ll be the first time he’s ever left.
Bruce’s vocals are wild, almost manic, and the whole song barrels like a bus toward the big city. What passes as a chorus is a one-line mantra–*nothing can stop me now–*that gains power with every utterance.
Before we even reach the second verse, we feel the narrator’s desperate need for escape, his small-town claustrophobia, and his utter conviction that his destiny is just a bus ride away–themes that hadn’t yet but soon will come to characterize Springsteen’s work.
But the signposts are about to get even clearer:
Yeah I’ll say my goodbyes to Mary
She’s a standing there at the door
I don’t wanna leave that women so bluesy
I never left that girl before, oh no no
A man’s gotta seek his fortune
And a man gotta seek his fame
I tell you when I get back
This whole town’s gonna know my name
No nothing can stop me boy
Not even my mama
Oh no nothing can stop me now
Before he pulls out of town to win, our hero needs to say goodbye to his girl Mary, who’s standing at the door. (It must be a screen door.)
It’s a first glimpse at a song that wouldn’t even begin to take shape for years, although reportedly there’s a 1972 song (which I’ve never heard) called “Angelina” that shares the first two lines of “Thunder Road.” If so, we can probably trace its ancestry back even further to “Come On Billy.”
There’s a delightful David Sancious solo at this point–always a highlight of any BSB song–and then we get yet one more glimpse into the future.
Hey Mr. Greyhound driver
It’s good to see you right on time
All I wanna know is how far do we go
What time do we arrive
No no nothing can stop me now
Well hey there, bus driver. Don’t forget to name your kids.
Without the benefit of hindsight, we might dismiss “Come On Billy, Break Out the Wine” as a short-lived trifle in an evolving artist’s repertoire–because it certainly was.
But it’s also a fun and fascinating peek into how beloved songs sometimes start from humble beginnings.
Come On Billy, Break Out the Wine
Never recorded
Never released
First performed: July 10, 1971 (Lincroft, NJ)
Last performed: July 29, 1971 (South Amboy, NJ)
© May 11, 2026