Ah alliteration, an alluring arrow to ideas…. as I typically only listen to Springsteen on days ending in ‘y’ the start of the weekend usually finds me enjoying a little Boss Time.
There’s a good couple of articles about Springsteen in this month’s Uncut magazine – one dealing with the events of 1973, the other following Bruce across a few stops on his current Bargain Prices Tour. One thing that struck out is that – especially given that the article must have been ok’d for publication from Springsteen’s camp – is that there’s once again mention of the recently touted ‘album-focused’ archival set: Bruce is hinting that he’s got a few unreleased albums in the vaults from the ’90s and that it’s time for a re-evaluation of a period usually considered one of his less prolific.
There are a couple of things to consider here. The first is ‘peak’ Bruce’s prolificacy – Steven Van Zandt’s comment that Springsteen always ‘had half an album’s’ worth of material ready to go was an understatement: as recent archival releases of Darkness…, The River and an examination of the variations Born In The USA went through show it was more a case that for every album he was releasing he’d written at least three times as many as saw the light of day. The vaults have been kept pretty tight since Tunnel of Love but it’s looking now like this continued for some time. The second is that, when Bruce was uncertain he’d second-guess himself – it’s why one of the anticipated elements of the ‘album-based’ project is the ‘lost’ ’90s album he recorded using programmed beats akin to ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ that’s been gathering dust in the vault due to the lukewarm reaction his previous albums had received.
Back in 2013 Bruce pointed out: “there’s a record that we recorded, mixed and didn’t put out. Bob Clearmountain mixed it, spent a lot of time on it… didn’t put it out. That was, like, ’94. And it still intrigues me. I still go back to it. There are still things on it that I really like, and I may go back to sort of say, ‘Okay, well, why…?’ Sometimes it’s timing, you know. There was a particular reason that I didn’t put out that group of music. Sometimes the timing just doesn’t feel right for that kind of record.”
By all accounts – and there were references to it in the ‘Blood Brothers’ vid that documented the awkward E-Street Band reunion Bruce, opted for the Greatest Hits album instead of releasing it – the album dealt once again with relationships between men and women. It would be his fourth such release in a row and the consensus was maybe that would be just one too many. ‘Secret Garden’ was one of those songs that was repurposed as a band song and ‘Missing’ sneaked out on the soundtrack to Sean Penn’s ‘The Crossing Guard’
Also on that list of songs originally recorded early in the ’90s was a take on The Rising‘s ‘Nothing Man’ and a song called ‘Burnin’ Train’ which arrived on 2020’s outstanding Letter To You in a much more E Street punched up form.
Looking at the lyrics – “I wanted you to heal me but instead you set me on fire” – it wouldn’t be hard to see them attached to a moodier, synth-heavy tune from that era and, as Tracks‘ ‘Leavin’ Train’ and ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ from later that decade point out, Bruce was swinging those train metaphors around in the ’90s with the same heft he once swung ‘fuelie heads’ about. Similar lyrics grace ‘Waiting On The End of the World’ (not a Sunny Day)
While Bruce would pull this one out for a try with the band in ’95 those “For one deadly love like a disease, I came to you crawling on my knees” put this in the same ‘must be from the lost album songs’ pile for me. The fact that he couldn’t get a take he was happy with with the band enough to release to me suggests that – much like Nebraska – these were songs that didn’t always work with the full band.
Anyway, my digging around for more on Springsteen’s ’90s output meant I discovered the famous ‘Molly Meldrum’ interview was available in full. Back in ’95 Springsteen was doing the press rounds for Greatest Hits: Bruce sits in a studio and a cast of interviewers get their 15mins to ask the usual pre-cleared questions, get the standard answers, a wry throaty chuckle and out they go before the next. You know the drill. Turns out Australia’s Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum wanted more. In fact he took a swing in an effort to get an exclusive for his ’90 Minutes’ show by throwing in a wildcard at the end of his interview and just kept going.
Meldrum is clearly a fan and has plenty of knowledge – including the cut verse from ‘Glory Days’ about Springsteen Sr. – and the fact that he’s asking unique and insightful questions means Bruce is intrigued enough, and often on the back foot, to keep going even though his management team were gesturing at him to stop whenever he cast a glance their way.
So we get an unexpectedly interesting interview instead of the usual stage-managed Q&A. Meldrum wasn’t actually allowed to use anything but his original 15min of footage – Springsteen’s team were apparently furious even if the Boss seemed pretty obliging about it all. Thankfully it was 25 years or so ago so you can now see the whole thing on YouTube which, if you have the time to sit back and enjoy 90 mins of cracking interview (I know, that’s like 100 tiktoks long) I heartily recommend. Though I appear to unable to embed the thing so you’ll have to pop it open from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnWrBbt8h4k&t=768s
Mumbling About... 