This early demo, influenced if not shaped by Bruce’s 1971-72 family reunion, points the way to “Lost in the Flood” and other saga songs to come.
Category: Roll of the Dice
A themed benefit concert invite provided the spark for Bruce’s original talking blues. Take a listen and laugh along inside.
In 1997, Bruce plucked Sis Cunningham’s bitingly funny dust bowl chronicle from obscurity when he recorded it in his very first Seeger Session. Nine years later, it would become a nightly tour showpiece.
Bearing influences both local and literary, “Spirit in the Night” immediately established itself as one of Bruce’s signature songs.
One of the more curious of Bruce’s work-in-progress River-era home demos, “Stockton Girls” offers an inside look at a songwriter striving to bring a theme to life.
This Tunnel of Love outtake is the mirror image of “Valentine’s Day,” an artfully and subtly constructed escape fantasy that would have been a perfect fit on the album.
Bruce’s revealing, healing “Family Song” shines a light into his glossed-over reconciliation with his family in the winter of 1971-72.
Years before he openly confessed his lifelong battle with depression, Bruce hid it in plain sight as the centerpiece of his Wrecking Ball album.
In 2010, an on-line auction site featured a page of untitled, original early Springsteen lyrics. Despite the deceptively provocative name they assigned, “Vaginal Vandals” is a fascinating seed of what might have developed into an early tale of youthful rebellion.
Steel Mill was known for its ferocious guitar jams, but “Sister Theresa” is a fascinating exception: a Springsteen original written for acoustic guitar and recorder(!)