Singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding is no stranger to Bruce’s music. He’s performed with Bruce twice before (including a wonderful “Wreck on the Highway” duet), and Bruce hand-picked Harding to be his opening act–Bruce’s first in two decades–during his 1995 Berkeley gigs.
Harding has a new album out this year–brilliantly entitled Greatest Other People’s Hits— and it includes his wonderful cover of “Jackson Cage,” originally recorded and released in 1997 on the One Step Up/Two Steps Back tribute album. It’s also available as a bonus track on the reissue of his Awake album.
And yes, it’s worth three separate releases for a cover this good. I’ve always thought “Jackson Cage” works better as an acoustic ballad rather than an electric rocker, and Harding’s arrangement proves it: backed by guitar and a melancholy violin, Harding captures the sadness and the sense of being trapped that’s at the heart of the song without the anger of Bruce’s original version. The end result is a song that feels more resigned than frustrated, more tender than angry.
It’s a short list of covers that I like more than the original, but Harding’s version of “Jackson Cage” is certainly on it.
