Springsteen Challenge Day 14: Favorite Cover of a Bruce Song

This is difficult for me.  I don’t really listen to other artists’ renditions of Bruce songs.  I tend to spend my time listening to covers of Springsteen songs and think “Yeah, but I could be listening to my favorite artist perform this song, and it’d be a song he wrote…” I often think a few things when I listen to a cover of a Bruce song:

1)   Bruce did it better

2)   None of this sounds right

3)   Did you just change a lyric?  Did you just change a fucking lyric to a Springsteen song?  And what was that pan flute doing in there?

As I mentioned previously, I first heard “One Step Up” on a Kenny Chesney album. I liked it, but when I heard the Bruce version, I liked it a whole lot more.  I tend to rank covers of Bruce songs into three categories:

A)   Jesus, what the fuck was that shit?!

B)   Dude, leave the rock and roll to the professional.

C)   Yeah, okay. Now I’m going to listen to the Bruce version.

A song that falls into the A category is Faith Hill’s version of “If I Should Fall Behind” from her “Breathe” album.  I remember seeing that on the album, and thinking “I like Faith Hill.  I like that song.  Let’s uhh… well, let’s give it a listen.” It’s horrible.  It’s all pop-countryish.  It misses everything about how it was a song from Bruce to Patti about his dedication to their love. And the live version Bruce and the band do in MSG in 2000? Wonderful. Amazing.  The exact opposite of this cover. It’s got this weird plucking guitar thing that sounds oversynthed. It sounds like Faith Hill would be dancing and waving her arms like Ann Coulter on ‘shrooms. The tempo is all off.  This is terrible.

A song that falls into the B category is “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.  This is another song that Bruce wrote about himself.  The Madman drummer was Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez, the Indians is a reference to Bruce’s little league team.  He’s the teenage diplomat.  The entire thing is all about his fear in the face of what he feels is his destiny – fame and stardom.  He was right.  Also, Manfred Mann make a crucial change to a lyric of the chorus.  In Bruce’s version, he sings “cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night” – in his version, the “deuce” was in reference to a deuce coupe – a two seater hot rod.  In Manfred Mann’s version, they say, “Revved up like a douche” – I don’t know how a douche gets revved up.  It makes little to no sense.  There’s the futuristic keyboards, the goofy seventies feel to it… it just blows.  And, the kicker?  It’s Bruce’s only song to go number one, but not his version –the Manfred Mann version.  All that said?  I still like the song – it’s sonically pleasing to me.  But, seriously Manfred Mann – leave the rock and roll to the professional. And don’t get me started on their cover of “For You.”  Did they write any of their own music?  Their most popular song is “Quinn the Eskimo” – a Dylan song!

A song that falls into the C category is Kenny Chesney’s cover of “One Step Up.” I like it.  I still think about Bruce’s version more when I hear it, but it’s a good version.  As Kenny points out in his liner notes, He always liked the song, but he couldn’t cover it because he wasn’t at a place in his life where he felt like it would be a valid choice for him to do so.  I always understood that rationale.  Once he felt like he could cover it, because of his own heartache, he did.  But, I still like the Bruce version better, and usually follow up the Kenny version with the Bruce version.  It should be noted that, once he recorded this song, Kenny began writing more, and eventually released “Be As You Are” – his “Nebraska” album solo, acoustic, and for which he did not tour.

But, my favorite cover of a Bruce song has to be the 10,000 Maniacs cover of “Because the Night” – it’s a song I didn’t even realize was a Bruce song – they also recorded a version closer to Bruce’s original lyrics than the tweaked lyrics released by Patti Smith.  I like Because the Night a lot, and I grew up with the 10,000 maniacs version of the song from an early age.  For whatever reason, this is one of the few songs that I know is Bruce’s that I do not run back to his version, even the Live 1975-1985 version, which is fantastic in its own right.  I also love the parts of the concert where, as he breaks into the licks to Because the Night, people who aren’t diehards say, “Ooh, I love this song – he does a cover of it?” Also, this song is usually Nils’ chance to go insane on the guitar, including “Hurricane Nils.”  What’s weird is, based on their MTV Unplugged version of the song, I thought 10,000 Maniacs had to be some Irish band like The Corrs or the Cranberries. Nope – they are American.  Makes me like them even more.  Plus, they didn’t short the band name – not a thousand maniacs.  Ten thousand.  I like ten thousand of anything, which is why I like eating rice.

Tomorrow’s topic: Favorite Piece of Bruce Memorabilia that I own