Son Little hails from Philadelphia, deep in Springsteen country. Perhaps that’s why his first Springsteen cover is a true deep cut rather than one of the countless versions of “Dancing in the Dark” and “I’m on Fire” out there.
His cover of “State Trooper” will give you chills, which is entirely appropriate given that Bruce’s original version is probably his most terrifying performance on vinyl. Little starts out hewing very closely to the sound of the original Nebraska track, but as the song builds towards its conclusion, he let’s the song’s simmering fear and violence escape in a storm of distortion and discordance.
Little released the track on his Soundcloud page in August 2016 without any fanfare or commentary, so we’re left to guess at why this track speaks to him and why he chose to cover and release it.
But it’s hard to not notice the timing: just a few weeks before Son Little covered “State Trooper,” two African-American men were shot and killed by white police officers in two American cities in two days, prompting a nationwide outbreak of Black Lives Matter protests.
In Bruce’s original recording, it’s the narrator at the song’s sinister heart; in Son Little’s version, I can’t help but hear the song through a different prism.
