MatR: Steve Earle and Bruce Springsteen: Dead Flowers

“Dead Flowers” is as close as The Rolling Stones ever got to country music.

You could even argue they got all the way there: Classic Rock Magazine calls “Dead Flowers” the third-greatest country rock song of all time, in fact.

So when Bruce Springsteen joined Steve Earle on stage in early 1998 for a remarkably rare set of covers and Earle originals (every single one of the six songs Bruce played that night was a true one-off, never played by him before or since), “Dead Flowers” was perhaps the most appropriate cover possible for country rocker Earle and country-inspired rocker Springsteen to tackle together.

Here’s that one-time-only performance, from February 6, 1998 at Tradewinds in Sea Bright, New Jersey. Earle takes the lead vocal (it was his show, after all), but if you listen carefully you can easily hear Bruce in the background.

It’s too bad Bruce didn’t take more of a foreground role on this one; “Dead Flowers” cries out for a true Springsteen cover sometime down the road.

Dead Flowers
First performed: February 6, 1998 (Sea Bright, NJ)
Last performed: February 6, 1998 (Sea Bright, NJ)