Spare Parts: Cheap Motel

I’m glad I started this “Spare Parts” series recently, because I’d have no idea how else to classify this, to be honest.

In one sense, “Cheap Motel” is an original Springsteen song in that Bruce wrote the music. But he didn’t write the lyrics–the great Joe Grushecky supplied those.

(The lyrics sure read like a Springsteen song, though: Joe’s “I had a job/I had a girl” protagonist drifts through the American southwest until he’s picked up by the police for building a bomb(!). Given that the two men wrote the song together in 1995 during the same time that Bruce was recording The Ghost of Tom Joad, it certainly seems like Joe was at least strongly influenced by Bruce’s then-current recording project.)

In another sense, it’s a cover, because Bruce didn’t play any part in the studio recording.

And at the same time, it’s neither–It’s Joe’s song (the lyrics at least) and his own recording.

But Bruce’s stamp is on the song through his music and his influence, so it gets an entry on the Shuffle. Plus it’s a great song, so enjoy.

Cheap Motel
Released: Coming Home (1997)
Never performed live