Take a listen to “Mr. Jones,” the earliest known recording of Bruce Springsteen performing an original composition live on stage.
Category: Roll of the Dice
Ominous, brooding, and referential, “The Big Muddy” sticks out like a sore thumb on Bruce’s Lucky Town album–but it’s one of the album’s best songs.
A castoff from the Ghost of Tom Joad recording sessions, “Tiger Rose” made its way to an official release and stage performance via the late, great Sonny Burgess. Watch Bruce and Sonny perform it together inside.
“Downbound Train” is a master class in cinematic songwriting. Let’s look at how the director skillfully crafted his “movie” inside.
“We’ve Got to Do It Now” is a Steel Mill-era anti-war song with co-lead vocals by Bruce and Robbin Thompson.
“Local Hero” is a sly, meta-commentary on the downhill side of fame–and its greatest irony is that Bruce never quite reached it like he thought he would.
A tale of two one-way streets: one bitter, one sad, both sweet.
A precursor to “Working on the Highway,” Bruce’s lost-in-time “Stockton Boys” never made it past the home demo stage–but those demos escaped into the wild. Take a listen inside.
The rocking arrangement and blunt language of “Spare Parts” overwhelms the dilemma at its center its moral of redemptive self-empowerment. Like “Born in the U.S.A.,” its true power emerges when it’s performed quietly.
“Clouds” is the first entry in Bruce’s legendary lost 1968 Notebook. Likely performed in his solo acoustic shows that year, “Clouds” is the lament of a Vietnam soldier clinging desperately to visions of home, love, and life.