Bruce Springsteen Song Thread
 

With all of the other song threads that have started up around here lately, I was surprised there wasn't one for the Boss. I know there are at least a few folks around here with some good recordings of Bruce's tunes. I was just recording this earlier and it occurred to me that nobody had started this thread yet, so I'm starting it now. This was one I believe he wrote for Steve Van Zandt when he left the E-Street band in the early '80s. I saw him play this with just his acoustic guitar and voice in the Tacoma Dome in 1984, and you coulda heard a pin drop. That man was an amazing performer in his prime. And he's given us so many great songs...



Please add your recordings to this thread.

-Ray

Hi Ray,

Nice job! I’ve never gotten comfortable with that one, I’m impressed.

Here’s one of mine

https://soundcloud.com/user-16619491...-b-springsteen

I did a couple of Bruce songs a while ago, shown below...





- Glenn

Love that Janey, Glenn.

Says something about his songwriting talent that this one never made an album at the time it was recorded, and was only released later on a compilation.

You nailed the harmonies, which were sung by Nils Lofgren. I believe this was the first track Nils ever recorded with Bruce. Many, many years later I saw Bruce call this song as an audible, and then push Nils out front to sing lead on the second verse. That was fun 🤩

I was also a huge fan of Nils when he joined the E Street Band in 1984, and I wasn’t real happy with it in the beginning. It was hard to hear Nils in the mix, and he is a phenomenal guitar player. Bruce gave him a larger role as time went on, and Nils has continued his solo career, often touring as an acoustic act. So it turned out pretty good!

This one must have been quite a job for you, I’m glad it turned out so well! Bravo :)

Thanks for your thoughts on my Janey cover, Bob. Someone suggested this song to me, so I learned it and had fun with it. My use of the Ric 12-string was not typically Bruce S. but I thought it worked well. And I really do enjoy the chance to sing harmony parts; I've always loved the sound of vocal harmony.

Take care Bob!
- Glenn

That was well done, Bob! You've got a nice Bruce vibe going on there!

- Glenn

Bob,

I really like that My City of Ruins. One of the things I've come to love about threads like these are they remind me of songs I've never thought about doing and get me interested in trying. Your version of New Minglewood Blues in that Grateful Dead thread got me going on that and now it's one of my favorite songs to play, although I don't think I'll ever be able to keep a straight face singing the lyrics... ;) This is one I may have to pull out and try also. And I think your singing and playing get this tune just right.

Glenn,

Your singing and playing (various instruments!) and arranging and videography are all so next level impressive I don't even know where to start. I think I had your version of "I'm On Fire" in mind when I started this thread. I don't know if I'd heard your version of "Janey" before, but it's also excellent and that Ric 12-string is a great touch. That's a guitar I'd love to play around with, I've played a few acoustic 12 strings, but never an electric, and that's THE iconic electric 12 string. I think your taste in music tends toward sweeter and prettier than my grittier rock and blues taste, so I don't always comment, but I've never seen/heard one of your videos that I wasn't enormously impressed by. And I think you catch the quiet desperation of "I'm On Fire" just perfectly. I wish I had a fraction of your skill and talent - I'd probably use it a bit differently if I did, but man, what a gift!

-Ray

This is one I recorded a while ago and kind of forgot about. Had never put it up on Soundcloud. But I remembered it and listened to it again and decided to put it up. It makes me quite aware of my vocal limitations, but I know I'll never be a GOOD singer, so when I manage semi-passable, I guess I just have to be happy enough with that and keep going for it. I'm better than I used to be, enough to really enjoy singing now (I used to cringe through the process) and that only comes from doing a lot of it. So, I keep doing it.

This one's from Tunnel of Love, which is probably my favorite album after his first three - because I think those are the ones mostly taken from HIS life, rather than writing from the perspective of a literary character he more or less invented as a vehicle. Which he's also incredibly great at, but I really connect to the stuff that seems more organically about him more than the other stuff.

I don't have any more Bruce recorded yet. Oh, forgot about Wild Billy - I posted that one elsewhere a good while back. I'm working on a couple others from his early stuff. One I think I'm getting close to recording, the other definitely is NOT close. But maybe someday... And other stuff will no doubt pop up and grab me. I just took a shot at No Surrender for the first time yesterday and liked it well enough.

-Ray

I played a gig downtown Chatham yesterday evening; we played three… Atlantic City, Promised Land, and Thunder Road! Closed with Thunder…

For this thread though, I’ll add one of my favorite Bruce tunes. Ghost of Tom Joad. It definitely has that Grapes of Wrath feel…

Oh yeah, I remember this video too, Sal. Man, that's wonderful. When I heard you do it the first time I tried to learn it, and didn't get far. But this is gonna inspire me to try it again. I just don't know the song that well and it takes me a lot longer to learn stuff that I haven't listened to that much. Some of these songs I've known at the molecular level for so many years that when I try them, I at least know what I'm aiming for, whether I can ever get where I want to or not. I have to spend some more time with this one...

-Ray

Hi Ray,

Thank you for your kind words and for your recordings. I enjoyed them. You've got a very nice Bruce kind of flavor going in your recordings, particularly in the vocals and it works well! :) Your guitar sounds terrific!

Regarding my taste in music, I do tend to like sweet and pretty, but I also like gritty and bluesy at times, too. For me, the sweet and pretty fit in better with an acoustic guitar. I actually like a very wide range of music, which I suppose can be a disadvantage.

Thanks for starting this thread, Ray. :)

- Glenn

Hey Glenn, your “On Fire” was….on fire. You nailed all aspects of that one…including the video production. Bruce should be jealous.

How nice of you Angie! Thanks for the kind words!

At the time I made that video in January of 2020 there were wildfires all over Australia and I did not want to appear insensitive to the sufferings going on over there. I thought if I used a video of red hot coals from my wood stove for the background in my video that people would not make the association with wildfires in Australia. Even so, I remember BruceBub (from Australia) commented about all of Australia being on fire. :cry:

Probably "I'm On Fire" should be sung by a younger man, but, well... I yam what I yam... :lol:

Thank you Angie! :)

- Glenn

Thanks Glenn. I'd rather sound like Vince Gill, but that ain't happening :)

Appreciate that, Ray. These threads are great for learning new tunes. This song reminds me of The Weight.

Killing it as usual, Sal! Glad you are gigging again. I have a daughter who moved to your area just before the unspeakable event, so I hope to see you perform some day :)

Bob let me know if I can help her! I assume she may have a kid or two? I am on the Board of Ed.....

Thanks, Sal. She has the first one under construction with a due date around Thanksgiving. She is in Madison, I'm not sure if that is the same school district as Chatham. More importantly she loves the Boss and I'm sure will want to catch your act! I'll PM you when we are in town, much appreciated.

Bump!
 

Hey guys, it’s been few days….the Deadheads got 147 posts in
nearly 4 months, time to show them who is Boss :D:D

Good job, Bob! I enjoyed that!

- Glenn

Fun thread, nice job everyone! Particularly like Sal's Joad and Bob's Johnny 99.

Hi Glenn and Paul,

I'm glad you guys are following along and appreciate the listens!

We did one of these Boss threads several years ago and had a good response.

Hoping for more contributions. I do a lot of his stuff, and am always looking for ways to improve my renditions by stealing from others :)

Nice job Bob. You're really nailing these slightly lesser known Bruce tunes. I like the vocal and the guitar on Johnny 99. Another song I've never even thought of trying. Not sure if I will or won't, but you put it on the map to think about, at least...

-Ray

Here's one from the Asbury Park album. One of my favorites - I saw him play it at my last really really great Bruce show (I think around 2008-2009). Only time I ever heard him play it live. It's a quickie - both a short song (under 3 minutes) and it took me about as long to record it as the song is. Really fun little tune. Lyrics don't make a lot of sense, but that was part of what I loved about his early stuff, so playful, not too serious.

Thanks, Ray. I've heard his so-called "hits" so many times that I really gravitate towards the lesser known tunes when I want to play some Bruce. A little more freedom not to try to sound authentic on Born to Run :). The Luckytown album is one I really like, I play most of those tunes.

I hope you give Johnny 99 a go. You can overdub a guitar solo where the harmonica break should be, I only kept scraping out the rhythm. I'm out of space on Soundcloud so no overdubbing for me for a while, I've not figured that out on YouTube.

BTW I think he plays this tune in B. Not my favorite key. I put a capo across the top 5 strings and played it in the D shape to get normal fingerings in the key of Drop E. Hope that makes sense!

Nice job Bob!
You too Ray! I’m a Bruce fan but I didn’t know that song…

I have to say… these song threads are a lot of fun, and they ties us together. Keep them coming. Great idea.

Thanks, Sal! I’ll bet you have a few more up your NJ sleeve :D

Good job on a neat little tune, Ray, I always liked it and finally saw him do it live sbout 10 years back :)

I don't know if I'm likely to, just because I don't know the song deep in my bones from years and years of listening to it. I have the same problem with Ghost of Tom Joad, which Sal's version of makes me sort of want to try. SO MANY of Bruce's songs I know down to the molecular level, so that when I start trying to play them, I know what I'm going for. I know I'll never get to the point of doing it as well as how I hear it in my head, but I DO hear it in my head. My aim may not be true, but the target is crystal clear. But Johnny 99, Ghost of Tom Joad, and several others just aren't in my DNA in the way that so many others are. There are sooo many songs from sooo many artists that I just know basically note for note form listening to them a LOT for 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 or even-50 years. Songs I listened to from time to time, just don't worm their way in nearly as well, which makes learning to play and sing them overwhelmingly more difficult.

Thanks Bob. There's one more from that album that I've been playing. I may try to record it at some point, but I'm not optimistic I'm gonna get it down well enough to ever post it - the phrasing is really weird throughout the song and it's just really hard to get the feel of it down - and that's a song I DO know down to the level of my DNA... But it's a really tough one for me.

So wait, the stuff you've done with multiple tracks you're somehow multi-tracking in SoundCloud? I didn't know it had that capability. I have a little recorder with 8 tracks, so I record however many tracks (usually just one or two, but I've done as many as five or six) and mix on that, save the song when I'm done, and then it's about equally easy to upload it to either SoundCloud or Youtube. I didn't know Soundcloud allowed you to do that just within it???

I went ahead and paid for a year of SoundCloud when they enticed me with some special. Instead of $13 per month, I think it was $7, so I just bought a year to see how I like it. So far, I do. In addition to unlimited space, you can also tweak a song and put the tweaked version up without deleting the prior version - you just save the new one in it's place, and all of the information, any links to sites like the forum, etc, stay in place. I don't do that often, but I've done it, and it's really easy with the premium version. I don't know if I'll re-up at full price after my year is up - might go full time to YouTube at that point. For some reason I feel weird about putting songs on YouTube with just a cover photo - I feel like I should be putting video up, but I really don't have any desire to add video to the recording process, which I have pretty well streamlined... There's almost no setup time - I just sit down where I normally sit to play, put the headphones on, push record, and go.

-Ray

Ray, I think I misled you. I don't know how to overdub within SoundCloud, I doubt that is possible. I have a usb mic I plug into my iPad and use an app called Multitrack DAW which uploads directly to Soundcloud. Once in a while I will use one of the free audio to video converters to move it over to YouTube, but that is a bit of a process.....

OK, got it. What I've done with Youtube is just make a movie template in iMovie that has a photo in it as the background. Then I just drag a song file into it, save it as a movie, and then it uploads to Youtube the same as any other movie. The next time, drag a different song file into it and save it with a different name... Really easy, but about half an extra step compared to just uploading to Soundcloud...

-Ray

Thanks Ray--that is going to save me a bunch of time!

Bump!
 

C’mon guys, show some luv for the Boss :)

Luckytown