Springsteen Challenge Day 13: Favorite live cover performed by Bruce

(Side note: yes, I know, I missed a few days.  It was my 1-year anniversary this weekend, so, like everything else in these posts, I lay the responsibility for my actions at the feet of my bride.  Have some of that, sweetheart.)

This is another in the long list of “Nate’s going to choose to interpret this how he wants to in order to tell a story that he likes” posts.  I take “Bruce Live” to mean times I’ve seen him live in concert.  Which means commercially released stuff, for which I was not in attendance, doesn’t count.  But, I’ll go over some of it anyway!

In his early years, Bruce performed lots of covers – he was a big Elvis fan, and used to play plenty of pop hits, including what is known as the Detroit Medley – Devil with a Blue Dress On, CC Rider, and Good Golly Miss Molly, along with some Beatles songs, and other standards of the day.  On his Live 1975-1985 album, he performed “This Land is Your Land,” accompanied by one of the strangest stories before the song in Bruce’s recorded history.  Normally one for long yarns that entertain the masses, Bruce stumbles through an awkward introduction in which he discusses Joe Klein’s book “Woody Guthrie: A Life.” He describes it as “really… a great book.”   He also recounts a story from the book about the writing of “This Land” – “It was an angry song.  It was an answer to Irving Berlin, who just wrote ‘God Bless America.’ And he wrote this song as an answer to him. And uh… It’s just about one of the most beautiful songs ever written.  Anyway.  Lemme do this for ya.”

Another from that album is “Jersey Girl” – A great Tom Waits song, rescued from the sounds of Waits’ raspy voice, reminiscent of a mouthful of glass covered in battery acid. Bruce, of course, also released 12” EP that was titled “Chimes of Freedom” in which he provides one of the best versions of that song, bar none.  But, as I was young and/or not born, those do not count.  As he reunited the E Street Band, the crowd was far more interested in hearing the old standbys.  Bruce, with several albums of material, spanning multiple decades, was happy to oblige.  Sure, he might audible, but it was going to be one of his own, most likely.  Then, something interesting happened around about the time the Magic tour was winding down in 2008.  Bruce started taking signs from the audience.  People were bringing signs to the shows requesting old Bruce songs that he hadn’t really played all that much – Rosie, Sandy, Incident on 57^th street, deep cuts from tracks.  The trend grew, and by early 2009, in Boston, we were getting signs for songs like “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide” by ZZ Top, and “I Wanna Be Sedated” by the Ramones (both awesome).

Previously, Bruce had only been taking song requests from people he met backstage prior to the concert, much to my envy. In fact, I wasn’t really figuring out exactly how Bruce was meeting these people, and how they were getting their requests in.  Were they sending notes backstage?  Were they backstage with Bruce prior to the show?  At the Devils and Dust show I went to in Buffalo, Bruce said he received a request via a note for him to play “Everything is Everything.” He also said, “I never wrote a song called ‘Everything is Everything.’ But I think I wrote a line that says ‘Everything is Everything’ so I was strainin’ my brain, but we figured it out.  So, this is for uhh… This is for Lisa.  Lisa, by the way, that is the incorrect title to the song. I often wonder how much can you like the song if you don’t know what it’s called? But sometimes, all it takes is one thing.”  Great little jokey kind of teasing rap before the song, and then he played his own song “You’re Missing” from the Rising album.  That show, however, does contain my favorite Bruce cover song performed live for which I was in attendance, and, if I’m being honest, I wasn’t wild about it when I heard it.  But, once I got the bootleg, which is a phenomenal recording, by the way, and thankfully recorded nowhere near me, as the woman to my friend’s left sat sobbing during “Sandy” which would’ve ruined the entire recording.  Maybe her name was Sandy. Who knows…

At any rate, that song of which I reference is called “Dream Baby Dream” – it was the show closer on the Devils and Dust tour – Bruce performed it while playing a little pump organ.  The song is very simplistic in its’ lyrics, but the sparse nature of the song, the echoes of the hall, and the clarity of the recording add to it.  We loved it once we listened to it.  In fact, Bruce released it on a 10” vinyl single a few years ago, before Record Store Day proper was started.  The song itself is by a band called “Suicide” and it is far different than the Bruce version.  Suffice it to say, I like the Bruce version better (surprise of the century).

It was one of the more adventurous things I’d heard Bruce do, and it happened at a concert unlike any I’d ever been to before, so I liked it.  It’s always stuck with me, and it was one of the first times I stood watching Bruce sing, having very little clue as to what the lyrics of the song was, but then listening to it more than any other song from that performance according to my iTunes count.

Tomorrow’s post topic: Favorite Cover of a Bruce Song