Cover Me: She Don’t Love Me Now

The mark of a great cover artist is the ability to find something that was always hidden within a song but that wasn’t brought to light by the original artist.

Bruce Springsteen is a great cover artist.

You wouldn’t know it from his most recent album, however.

I’m not saying Only the Strong Survive is a bad album–far from it. It’s full of gorgeous, faithful vocal renditions of both classic and lesser-known R&B songs.

But despite its subtitle, I’d argue that it’s not so much a covers album as a vocals album, designed to highlight Springsteen as soul crooner rather than interpreter. Every song hews faithfully to its original arrangement. There’s no reason to listen to any of the tracks except to hear what the song sounds like with Bruce’s voice singing it.

If we listen to “Trapped,” “Jersey Girl,” or anything from the Seeger Sessions era, by contrast, we glean a true appreciation for Bruce’s ability to reinvigorate a song that was already great to begin with.

Which is why it’s so refreshing to hear Bruce’s rendition of Jesse Malin’s “She Don’t Love Me Now,”
a return to form for Bruce and a fitting tribute to an artist we’ve featured here many times before.

Bruce and Jesse have performed many of Malin’s songs on stage together over the years. Bruce even appears on the studio version of “Broken Radio.”

So why did Bruce choose to cover a song the pair have never performed? I’m guessing it has something to do with the original track’s production. Recorded for Malin’s 2015 album, New York Before the War, “She Don’t Love Me Now” is clearly influenced by the classic Stax sound. Even without Jesse’s admission in recent interviews, we can hear it almost immediately in the backing horns, an unusual presence in a Jesse Malin song.

Now if we listen to Jesse’s original and Bruce’s cover back-to-back, at first blush they might not sound that different. But they certainly feel different, don’t they?

Jesse’s version is loose and laid back. He shambles his way through the song, planting a foot squarely on each downbeat like the inebriated lovelorn narrator we imagine.

Bruce, on the other hand, struts his way through a slightly syncopated vocal performance, lending an element of funk to the proceedings and leaning into the “other fish in the sea” vibe of the song’s third verse. And oh, that sax solo that stretches across the song’s final minute–it’s one of my favorite Jake Clemons moments on record, and it emotionally anchors the song in a long-ago era.

Both versions are splendid in their own way. Both belong in the collection of any fan of either artist devoted enough to be reading this blog.

So go out and get the album it appears on: Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin releases on September 20, 2024, and the proceeds go to Jesse’s Sweet Relief fund to help cover the costs of his recovery from a tragic and rare spinal stroke last year that left him paralyzed from the waist down–an exceptionally cruel blow for such a physical performer.

Besides Springsteen, the album features covers by Bleachers, Counting Crows, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, The Wallflowers, Low Cut Connie, Susanna Hoffs, Alejandro Escovedo and a host of other amazing artists–many of whom will be present when Jesse returns to the stage for the first time this December in New York City.

Don’t miss it.

She Don’t Love Me Now
Recorded: 2024
Released: Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin (2024)
Never performed