{"id":34234,"date":"1988-08-08T11:00:00","date_gmt":"1988-08-08T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=34234"},"modified":"2026-02-23T17:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:51:12","slug":"matr-joe-grushecky-and-bruce-springsteen-labor-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1988\/08\/08\/matr-joe-grushecky-and-bruce-springsteen-labor-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;[<em>American Babylon<\/em>] is sort of a dark record,&#8221; Joe Grushecky told me when we talked about his milestone album a couple of summers ago, &#8220;but I did purposely try to put in some lighter moments in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One of those lighter moments was &#8220;Labor of Love,&#8221; and even if it didn&#8217;t fit the theme of the album, it became one of Joe&#8217;s best-loved (<em>Billboard<\/em> editor Thom Duffy named it one of the ten best singles of 1995) and most-played songs, showing up in almost every show.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"758\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DSdpmShd7e4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>As he did with the rest of the album, Bruce Springsteen produced the ebullient track, and he contributed his instrumental talents on the guitar and mandolin, too.<\/p>\n<p>And speaking of that <em>very<\/em> familiar (to anyone in E Street Nation) mandolin riff&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That was just his bit to begin with,&#8221; Joe told me when I asked him if he gave Bruce his blessing to lift it for &#8220;Land of Hope and Dreams.&#8221; &#8220;Bruce played that part on guitar and mandolin&#8230;\u00a0 we trade ideas back and forth, so we both used it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Appearing on vinyl and CD more than four years before Bruce debuted his own song in public, that riff makes &#8220;Labor of Love&#8221; more than just a terrific pop song, it also marks the musical genesis of one of Bruce&#8217;s best songs, too. (It&#8217;s not as overt as the identical riff, but the first four lines of each verse also bear a certain musical similarity between the two songs.)<\/p>\n<p>Bruce made on-stage appearances with Joe and The Houserockers on &#8220;Labor of Love&#8221; too, nightly throughout Joe&#8217;s 1995 October Assault mini-tour in support of the new album&#8211;including an appearance at Tramps in New York City, presented in soundboard quality below.<\/p>\n<div id=\"v-GNQEIU6t-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='758' height='568' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/GNQEIU6t?hd=1&amp;cover=1&amp;loop=0&amp;autoPlay=0&amp;permalink=1&amp;muted=0&amp;controls=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;useAverageColor=0&amp;preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" src='https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/video\/assets\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js'><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Unfortunately, despite their many and frequent on-stage team-ups year after year after year, it&#8217;s been more than quarter-century since Bruce has joined Joe on &#8220;Labor of Love.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But catch Joe and his band anywhere they play, and odds are pretty high you&#8217;ll get a smoking version of it in person.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Labor of Love<br \/>\nFirst performed:<\/strong> July 22, 1995 (Sea Bright, NJ)<br \/>\n<strong>Last performed:<\/strong> March 2, 1998 (Pittsburgh, PA)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 May 8, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the best singles of 1995, &#8220;Labor of Love&#8221; was also a musical seed for one of Bruce&#8217;s best songs too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,3612,5],"tags":[269,56,17],"class_list":["post-34234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-me","category-great","category-meeting-across-the-river","tag-american-babylon","tag-joe-grushecky","tag-labor-of-love"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/labor.jpg?fit=800%2C700&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w3Lk-8Ua","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23584,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1988\/08\/24\/matr-joe-grushecky-and-bruce-springsteen-billys-waltz\/","url_meta":{"origin":34234,"position":0},"title":"Billy&#8217;s Waltz","author":"Ken","date":"August 24, 1988","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruce plays a beautiful, evocative mandolin and adds his backing vocals on this beautiful American Babylon deep cut.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/1000016101_Glitch.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/1000016101_Glitch.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/1000016101_Glitch.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/1000016101_Glitch.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":29031,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1988\/09\/02\/matr-joe-grushecky-bruce-springsteen-and-patti-scialfa-comin-down-maria\/","url_meta":{"origin":34234,"position":1},"title":"Comin&#8217; Down Maria","author":"Ken","date":"September 2, 1988","format":false,"excerpt":"Now it can be told: the secret Springsteen studio performance kept under wraps for a quarter century.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Great&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Great","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/great\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/New-Promo-IMG_11241.jpg?fit=1197%2C836&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/New-Promo-IMG_11241.jpg?fit=1197%2C836&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, 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&quot;Great&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Great","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/great\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/goodlife.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/goodlife.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/goodlife.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/goodlife.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/goodlife.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12100,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/09\/matr-joe-grushecky-and-bruce-springsteen-gimme-shelter\/","url_meta":{"origin":34234,"position":3},"title":"MatR: Joe Grushecky and Bruce Springsteen, Gimme Shelter","author":"Ken","date":"September 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"One time only: Bruce joins Joe Grushecky and The Houserockers on a blistering cover of The Rolling Stones' anthem \"Gimme Shelter.\"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/gimme-shelter-single.jpg?fit=780%2C742&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/gimme-shelter-single.jpg?fit=780%2C742&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, 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&quot;Great&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Great","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/great\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/image3A37425_Glitch3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/image3A37425_Glitch3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/image3A37425_Glitch3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/image3A37425_Glitch3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/image3A37425_Glitch3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19801,"url":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1988\/07\/31\/matr-joe-grushecky-and-bruce-springsteen-american-babylon\/","url_meta":{"origin":34234,"position":5},"title":"American Babylon","author":"Ken","date":"July 31, 1988","format":false,"excerpt":"American Babylon's title track is one of the only tracks Bruce had nothing to do with on the album, but that hasn't stopped Bruce and Joe from teaming up to play it on stage.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Cover Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Cover Me","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/category\/cover-me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/american-babylon.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estreetshuffle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/american-babylon.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, 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