How prolific was Bruce Springsteen during the period between Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River?
So prolific that despite requiring a double-album to hold all the songs he chose to release, there were dozens and dozens–and that’s not an exaggeration–that had to be left behind.
Many of the castoffs would eventually see the light of day on Tracks or on the album’s 35th anniversary box set; others remain in the vault still.
And then there are the ones that never made it into the studio at all, like “Walking on the Avenue.” And that’s too bad, because this one certainly had a lot of promise.
Bruce worked on the song acoustically during the first half of 1979, and as we can tell from the two acoustic home demos below, he started as he often did: with the music and a lyrical hook.
The lyrics in both the recording above and below are primitive and very, very bluffed. Don’t spend too much time trying to interpret them.
But the melody is warm, Bruce’s vocals are pure, and if we’re to judge from Bruce’s rhythmic timekeeping guitar-thumping, he probably intended “Walking on the Avenue” to be a melancholy romantic ballad in the style of “Fade Away.” (It’s quite possible, in fact, that “Walking on the Avenue” evolved into “Fade Away” given the chronology of recording.)
Regardless of whether Bruce evolved or abandoned it, however, this is as far as Bruce got with “Walking on the Avenue” (unless he surprises us someday on Tracks 2).
Walking on the Avenue
Recorded: January-June 1979
Never released
Never performed
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