Essential Springsteen Again (Revised Tracklist)

The official tracklist for the first 2 CD's was finally released, differing from the early versions posted here. Personally, I still miss Prove It All Night and a few others and wish a 15 song max per disc/3 song max from any particular album weren't so obviously imposed. However, not a bad sampler. Interesting that Youngstown, If I Should Fall Behind, and My City of Ruins were dropped from the original listing, replaced by two other Lucky Town tracks and Lonesome Day. Still waiting on the contents of that third bonus disc!!

Disc One

Blinded By the Light
Spirit in the Night
For You
4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Thunder Road
Born to Run
Jungleland
Badlands
Darkness on the Edge of Town
The Promised Land
The River
Hungry Heart
Nebraska
Atlantic City

Disc Two

Born in the USA
Glory Days
Dancing in the Dark
Tunnel of Love
Brilliant Disguise
Human Touch
Living Proof
Lucky Town
Streets of Philadelphia
The Ghost of Tom Joad
The Rising
Mary's Place
Lonesome Day
American Skin (41 Shots) (live)
Land of Hope and Dreams (live)

 

cover

 

I was actually curious about Lonesome Day. It was the first big single they pushed, and Bruce played it on most of his TV appearances. I miss My City Of Ruins, though. If I Should Fall Behind was the only song the band played from his 1992 releases when they first reunited in 2000, so I was surprised that was dropped, too.

 

Seems nicely sequenced.

 

Not a bad song in the bunch eh?

A buddy came by today with an old Boss Boot that I had never heard and it included an early version of Jungleland; slightly different arrangement and lyrics. It's hard to believe that it's been thirty years now since I first heard that voice. Can't wait for the official live stuff from "The Rising" tour and the next studio stuff and the next tour and .....well, you know.

Cheers-
Norm

 

This is even stronger than the already awesome list posted earlier. Disc 2 rocks a lot more now. Wonder how the remastering will be on these?

- Joe

 

Who handled the mastering for this one?

 

I'd swap out "Mary's Place" for "Secret Garden", but this is a pretty decent compilation.

 

Didn't notice this before, but still no Better Days. The do include Lucky Town and Living Proof, but I'm surprised Bruce would pick these over Better Days (the single and closest thing to a hit from the Lp) and If I Should Fall Behind (fan favorite, only song from 1992 performed on the 1999 reunion tour).

 

Bruce's notes on the set and the third disc....


When the record company approached us and said they wanted us to be a part of their essential" series, that old saying came to mind. You know? "one man's coffee is another man's tea, one man's whiskey?". In any body of work there are obvious high points. The rest depends on who's doing the listening. Where you were, when it was, who you were with when a particular song or album cut the deepest.

We saw a lot of new faces on our recent tour and we put this collection together with them in mind. We selected material from over the full span of our recorded work and had Bob Ludwig revise and improve the mastering. The idea was to present a little bit of what each album has to offer.

The Rarities disc contains things recorded as far back as '79 for "The River" ("From Small Things") to "Code of Silence," as song I wrote with Joe Grushecky (of Iron City Houserockers fame), that we debuted on the '99 tour with the E Street Band.

As for you guys who've been around for a while, I know? "Growin' Up," "Racing In The Street," "Backstreets," "My City Of Ruins", one man's coffee?

Best, and see you up the road.

From Small Things
Cut at The Power Station in NY in '79. I busted out my Gretch "country gentleman" guitar and the band drove the hell out of it in a take or two. I played this song for Dave Edmunds backstage in London in '80 and he made a great record of it.

Big Payback
A little mean rockabilly cut at home shortly after the "Nebraska" album.

Held Up Without A Gun (Live) *
A live and raucous in Uniondale, NY on New Year's Eve 1980. Go..Stevie?Go! Sing?Stevie?Sing!

Trapped (Live) *
Written by Jimmy Cliff, one of the great masters of reggae and cut live on "The River" tour.

None But The Brave
Set in the bars and '70's circuit in Asbury Park. Cut at the Hit Factory, NYC for "Born In The USA."

Missing
I was experimenting with drum looping at my home studio and recorded this in California in the mid '90's. I played it for Sean Penn and he used it in his film "The Crossing Guard."

Lift Me Up
Director John Sayles called and said he was looking for a song to end his film "Limbo." The picture ends with a small plane approaching an island his main characters were stranded on. I tried to pick up the hum of the plane's engine and write something ethereal using the falsetto voice I'd developed in the '90's.

Viva Las Vegas
Cut for the NME benefit record in support of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy with Jeff Porcaro on drums and Bob Ludwig on bass.

County Fair
Portrait of an end-of-summer fair on the outskirts of town. It's from a collection of acoustic songs I cut shortly after the "Nebraska" album in California in '83.

Code Of Silence (Live)
Written with Joe Grushecky in the winter of '97 and recorded live in NYC on the '99 tour with the E Street Band.

Dead Man Walkin'
Written for the Tim Robbins film. I tuned the E string of my guitar down to a D and cut it in as low a key as possible to get as much deepness and darkness I could out of the music.

Countin' On A Miracle (Acoustic)
I sat in the lounge of Southern Tracks Studio where we recorded "The Rising" and played this country blues version of "Countin' On A Miracle." Filmmaker/photographer Danny Clinch was there with his super 8 film camera and caught it on tape. We closed our shows on tour with his film. This is the audio portion.