Perhaps the most carefully constructed song on Bruce’s Wrecking Ball album, “Jack of All Trades” is both musically and (sadly) lyrically timeless.
Category: Roll of the Dice
Recorded during the freewheeling second Seeger Session, “Old Dan Tucker” led of Bruce’s 2006 album and became a nightly favorite on tour.
An anthem cloaked as an elegy, a gospel wrapped in rock, “The Rising” is one of Bruce’s finest, most important, and most superbly crafted songs.
Melodically warm but lyrically icy, “When You’re Alone” is (appropriately) one of the least played songs on Tunnel of Love.
This lonely River-era acoustic outtake never made it past the home demo stage, but with Bruce’s warm melody and vocals it demonstrated a lot of promise.
One time only (that we know of): Bruce’s first band plays one of his earliest original songs, co-written with George Theiss and inspired by The Kinks.
Bruce Springsteen Band backing vocalist Barbara Dinkins takes the lead on her original wronged-woman scorcher, but Bruce turns in a scorching performance of his own.
Laced with playfully ribald metaphor and delightfully sly euphemism, “All I’m Thinkin’ About” earns its place among the great masturbation songs.
Recorded during Bruce’s Nebraska period, “Wheels Make the World Go Round” was a promising rocker candidate at the wrong time.
A gift to an old friend became the award-winning title song for one of the best films of 2008 and one of the most deeply empathic songs in Bruce’s catalog.