(Note: Over the last week, two readers have informed me that videos like the Bruce and Steve one above no longer play for them. If this happens to you as well, please let me know in a comment, along with what type of device and browser you are using. So far it only seems to affect Mac users, but with a sample size of two, I can’t be sure. Once I have more data, I can put my hosting provider on the case. Thanks!)
When Nina Simone released her devastatingly vulnerable and powerful “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” in 1964 the world barely noticed. So how did it end up inspiring the riff for one of Bruce Springsteen’s most popular anthems?
And yet there it is, at the end of the song: a simple but instantly recognizable violin riff familiar to anyone in E Street Nation.
I’d like to think Bruce would have discovered “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” anyway at some point, because it’s such an incredible song, and because Simone’s performance is far and away better than any cover by anyone else since. (That may be hyperbole, since I haven’t heard them all, but just take another listen to her searing vocals and tell me: can you imagine anyone topping that?)
But it wasn’t Simone’s performance that inspired “Badlands,” of course. It was The Animals’ version released several months later that caught Bruce’s attention.
Their cover of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” was a huge international hit, peaking at #15 in the U.S. and #3 in the U.K., but in order to accomplish that feat, they had to popify the song with a Doors-ian organ riff. (The Animals were masters of the riff.) It’s still great, but Eric Burdon’s vocals convey only a fraction of the sincerity of Simone’s.
Still, it was enough to capture the imagination of Bruce Springsteen, a long-avowed Animals fan. A decade ago, Bruce and Little Steven shared their mutual appreciation of The Animals on an episode of Little Steven’s Underground Garage, and it was then that Bruce spilled the beans about “Badlands.” Take a listen:
And yet even though he’d covered The Animals many times in concert, and even though “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” inspired one of his most-performed songs, Bruce has never covered it in concert.
However, he did sound check it once.
At a rehearsal in Atlanta on the Tunnel of Love Tour, Bruce and the E Street Band broke in “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” with the Miami Horns joining Danny Federici’s organ to make the riff more powerful than ever.
Given the theme of the tour, what was going on in his life at the time, and all that Bruce has shared in recent years about his lifelong mental health challenges, it’s no wonder “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” spoke to him.
The only wonder is why he’s never performed it at a proper concert.
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
First Performed: March 23, 1988 (Atlanta, GA) – soundcheck only
Last Performed: March 23, 1988 (Atlanta, GA) – soundcheck only
Hi Ken it’s always AWESOME when you do something off the soundcheck. It’s just outstanding I was in the right place at the most awesome right time ever. Lol. But it’s amazing what he did that day and never played them anywhere else. And by doing the songs on here it really really makes me appreciate how unique and special this was since it was me and another guy in there and we had the whole place to the two of us.
I had the same experience when I saw stolen car sdcked in somerville at the benefit shows and I was the only one in the theater much to the freak out of the magazine editor.😎😎
I wish I had your super power, Chris!
Thank you😎😎 you’ve seen alot of special moments yourself that makes me wish I was there also