On the "Nebraska" cutting-room floor

I’ve been struggling with Bruce Springsteen for a while now. I think it’s because the sound of the E Street Band and him together is quite campy and a little too “big band” for my tastes. His great early works almost seem to have the flavour of Broadway musicals. I think that’s how I shall approach them from now on: as pieces of pure theatre rather than rock and roll. A bit like Rufus Wainwright, who I adore.

Anyway, the one Springsteen album I have really warmed to is “Nebraska” which is stripped down acoustic fare. It’s an immensely beautiful album and undeniably powerful in it’s simplicity. Well I read that a demo of “Born In The USA” had been recorded at the same time as the other “Nebraska” tracks and in the same style. So I went looking for it.

On Springsteen’s b-sides and rarities collection “Tracks” is this acoustic “Born In The USA” and what a gem it is. Shorn of it’s later keyboard and gruff ugliness, this acoustic (although there is a little electric guitar in there too) demo is simply another beast altogether. A lot more dignified than the album/single version (that we all know) would come to be.

Marvellous...