When Bruce pulled out a surprise two songs into his Brisbane show in 2013, set list watchers back in the U.S. must have been scratching their heads: What was this song?
As we quickly learned, that was the live debut of Bruce’s cover of “Just Like Fire Would,” a 1986 hit single by The Saints.
A hit single in the band’s native Australia that is. In the U.S., it was barely noticed, although it did garner some brief airplay on MTV.
In Australia, “Just Like Fire Would” peaked at #29, and the Triple M radio network ranked it #88 on its Most Australian Songs of All Time list.
Maybe that’s why Bruce decided to cover it when he took his Wrecking Ball Tour down under in the (Australian) summer of 2013. Or maybe he was simply looking for an excuse to play a song he’s always liked. Here’s Bruce discussing “Just Like Fire Would” on E Street Radio in early 2014:
It really does sound like an E Street Band song, which may be why Bruce kept his arrangement very close to the original. The bridge greatly benefits from the presence of the E Street Horns, but otherwise this a very faithful cover.
Even though he only performed it that one time on the tour, Bruce obviously enjoyed covering “Just Like Fire Would” enough to record it in the studio that same month. (Bruce, Tom Morello, and the band spent some time in a local studio while they toured the country.)
The result was a track that Bruce admired enough to include it on his next album, High Hopes, released ten months later. And while it was never officially released as a single, Bruce did release a video for “Just Like Fire Would” a week after the album was released.
That video was put together rather hastily: it was filmed on January 13, 2014 and released nine days later. Thanks to some skillful editing, a casual viewer might not realize that while the video was a live performance, the audio wasn’t–that’s the album track dubbed over the band’s performance.
But if you want to get a sense of what that live performance actually sounded like, watch the rarely seen video below. The official video was filmed at a closed rehearsal for the band’s appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon the next day. Bruce and the band performed the song for Fallon’s audience, but it was cut from the broadcast for time. Here’s that unaired performance:
“Just Like Fire Would” served as a staple of the High Hopes Tour set lists throughout the Australian/New Zealand leg, a reliable crowd-pleaser for the local audiences.
Back home in the states, he played it only three times over the course of a week before dropping it to make room for more recognizable rarities and covers.
I was lucky enough to catch it twice–in Cape Town and Charlotte, and I count myself fortunate to have done so. We may not hear Bruce play “Just Like Fire Would” again, but it was a fun, singalong addition to the set list while it lasted.
Just Like Fire Would
Recorded: March 2013
Released: High Hopes (2014)
First performed: March 14, 2012 (Brisbane, Australia)
Last performed: April 26, 2014 (Atlanta, GA)
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