Every year, the MerleFest roots music festival features a “Hillside Album Hour” hosted by The Waybacks. Each year, a different classic album is chosen for re-interpretation, and each year there’s a cryptic clue guessing game leading up to it.
In 2015, the album was Bruce’s Born in the U.S.A., and special guest Joan Osborne was on hand with The Waybacks to perform the entire album start to finish. It’s a remarkable performance full of fresh takes–well worth a listen (you can purchase or stream the live album). I’m sure this won’t be the only track from that concert that I’ll feature, but this is my favorite–a downright funky take on “I’m Goin’ Down,” reimagined and mashed up with… well, I won’t ruin the surprise, but I think the Temptations would approve.
If you’re a fan of how Bruce reinvented “Reason to Believe” on the Magic Tour, you’ll dig this:
Here are the clues that led up to the reveal of Born in the U.S.A. as 2015’s featured album. Can you solve the clues?
Clue #1: “We promise to treat you right.”
Clue #2: “Smiling rookie flips out on two joints.”
Clue #3: “Myrtle Grant, his ex, wanted nightly bar romance.”
While you puzzle those out, here’s another of their reinventions of a classic Springsteen song. This is how you put your own spin on another artist’s song. Check out their version of “Born in the U.S.A.”
Joan Osborne and The Waybacks just absolutely knock every single Born in the U.S.A. track out of the park. Some are relatively faithful, some are dramatic re-imaginings, some are clever mash-ups, but all of them are great, and this is an album very much worth having.
I don’t mind confessing that I do not like the song “Cover Me.” Bruce’s version has always left me cold, and if I stack-ranked his entire catalog I’m pretty sure you’d find “Cover Me” at the bottom of it.
But this version redeems it and then some. Brilliantly mashing it up with Edwin Starr’s “War” (which of course Bruce was known to cover on the Born in the U.S.A. Tour) breathes new life into the song–so much so that it’s a wonder that it never occurred to Bruce to pair them back in 1985.
Take a listen and enjoy–and then do yourself a favor and check out the rest of the album as well. Brilliant stuff.
Oh and about those puzzles, #3 is an anagram, #1 is a song lyric, and the answers to each of them are E Street Band members.
© May 15, 2018 / July 26, 2018 / April 22, 2019
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