On September 20, 1978, Bruce Springsteen had Johnny Cash on his mind.
He was sound-checking with the E Street Band at the Capitol Theater in Passaic before the second of his now-legendary three-show stand on the Darkness Tour, and as usual he was interweaving a handful of rock and country classics with his own material.
Hank Williams had become his soundcheck go-to of late; the intimate setting provided Bruce an opportunity to indulge his own tastes for material that likely wouldn’t win over a packed house. Tonight was no different: he kicked off the rehearsal with “Wedding Bells” and tinkered with “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love With You)” and “(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle” as well.
But in the middle of the session, he dialed up a double-shot of The Man in Black. Bruce would cover the latter of the pair (“I Walk the Line“) in concert following Cash’s death decades later. The former, however, was a one-time-only affair.
“Guess Things Happen That Way” was one of Cash’s earliest hits–his fourth #1 single on the country chart, a spot it refused to give up for a full eight weeks in 1958.
Bruce took two brief runs through the song on that late summer day, the first in his customary singing voice and the second in a register clearly intended to evoke the original artist. Neither run-through was a full pass through the song, but it was enough for us to get a sense of what Bruce’s cover might have sounded like if he’d played it in full.
“Guess Things Happen That Way” never made it into Bruce’s set list that night or any other. It joins a handful of lost classics only known to us thanks to the efforts of surreptitious bootleggers.
Guess Things Happen That Way
First performed: September 20, 1978 (Passaic, NJ) — soundcheck only
Last performed: September 20, 1978 (Passaic, NJ) — soundcheck only
