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USA Today
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Bruce Springsteen is releasing his 'Lost Albums': The songs you haven't heard but need to
There are musicians, and there is Bruce Springsteen. There are songwriters, and there is Bruce Springsteen. There are singers, and yes, you get the point. But there are also box sets, and there is 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums,' seven genre-specific collections that span 1983-2018, a period that witnessed the arrival of 'Born in the U.S.A.,' 'The Ghost of Tom Joad,' 'The Rising,' 'Wrecking Ball' and eight other chameleonic Springsteen releases. The set arrives June 27 in several forms – nine LPs, seven CDs and digital as well as a 20-song highlight version ('Lost and Found: Selections from The Lost Albums') on two LPs and one CD. That an artist crafted 83 songs of divergent styles – garage rock, country, Mexican ranchera and lush pop – as his leftovers illuminates Springsteen's musical brilliances as well as the epic scope of this set. And let's not forget this is the sequel. In 1998, Springsteen unloaded the 66-song 'Tracks' box set. But where that assembly corralled many demos and alternate versions of Springsteen favorites, 'Tracks II' presents completed masterworks that probe Springsteen's hallmark topics of redemption and romance while continuing down the path of enlightenment. Here's a look at the seven additions to the Springsteen catalog. 'LA Garage Sessions '83' Springsteen calls these 18 tracks 'a critical bridge between 'Nebraska' and 'Born in the U.S.A.,'' and of the magnificent seven 'lost' albums, only this collection contains several songs previously heard as B-sides ('Johnny Bye-Bye' as the flip side to 'I'm On Fire,' 'Shut Out the Light' backing 'Born in the U.S.A.') or on anthologies ('County Fair' landed on 2003's 'The Essential Bruce Springsteen'). In the early '80s, the King of New Jersey holed up in a small house in the Hollywood Hills. It was shortly after his timeless 'Nebraska' arrived and he was keen to expand his sound yet unsure if he'd wrangle the E Street Band for a rock album (spoiler: he did, in 1984). The lo-fi recordings include an eventual hit from 'Born in the U.S.A.,' a thinner version of its final track, 'My Hometown.' Springsteen's voice is a combination of Tom Petty lilt and Tom Waits grit on the original form of the ballad, one of many vocal styles he samples on the album. Springsteen is also transparent in his influences, saluting Buddy Holly with the quick bop, 'Little Girl Like You' and nodding to Elvis Presley on 'Follow That Dream.' It's a musically scattered collection, but foreshadows the genre-hopping Springsteen would soon explore. Standout track: 'Don't Back Down on Our Love' – Borrowing a guitar tone from The Beach Boys and filling the song with a charmingly repetitive chorus, this is both a throwback and evidence of Springsteen striding forward. He eagerly tinkers with soul, pop and rock while encouraging strength amid struggles. 'Streets of Philadelphia Sessions' Recorded during the same period as his Oscar and Grammy-winning title track from 1993's Tom Hanks-fronted 'Philadelphia' movie, the album that fans affectionately call Springsteen's 'loops record' is a sonic time capsule. The shuffling electronic beat under 'Between Heaven and Earth' is similar to Soul II Soul's 'Keep On Movin'' and PM Dawn's 'Set Adrift on Memory Bliss,' hits in the late-'80s and early '90s timeframe Springsteen has referenced as his influence for the record. Springsteen completed these 10 songs for a 1995 release. But instead of dropping new music, he shelved the album and reunited with the E Street Band for the first time in seven years. The only previously released song is the enigmatic 'Secret Garden,' which hasn't lost the seductive luster provided by Springsteen's murmured lyrics coated in innuendo. Originally released on his 1995 'Greatest Hits' album, the ballad didn't hopscotch up the charts until two years later, when it was included on the 'Jerry Maguire' soundtrack and peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. It remains Springsteen's last U.S. Top 40 hit to date. Standout track: 'Waiting on the End of the World' – Awash in keyboards and a chugging backbeat, the midtempo song offers a trademark lyric ('We hide from the truth in our hearts'), a singsong guitar solo and a dreamy outro that dissolves like a jet's vapor trail. 'Faithless' Written for a film that has yet to be made, 'Faithless' has smatterings of family influence. Springsteen says he penned the 11 songs during two weeks in Florida when he and his brood were there to watch daughter Jessica, an Olympic equestrian, on a trip related to her vocation. When it came time to record, wife Patti Scialfa (whose voice appears on several tracks) and their sons Evan and Sam offered a choir of background vocals on 'Where You Goin', Where You From?' The musical shading of the album is influenced by the recording window – between the 2005 Devils & Dust tour and the release of 'We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions' in April 2006 – that found Springsteen in an acoustic and spiritual state of mind. Those emotional generators are apparent on the title track, a minimal hymn of salvation wrapped in Springsteen's quivering voice. He's much bolder on 'All God's Children,' his foot stomping and his voice ragged as he morphs into preacher mode through lyrics such as 'I scratched me a grave with my own hands/and you can bury me deep in the blood of the land' and a chorus of 'Glory, hallelujah.' But it's the closing 'My Master's Hand (Theme),'' a purposeful march on which Springsteen handles nearly every instrument, including the shuffling snare drum, organ and harmonica, that sounds primed for the end credits of a film that might still hatch. Standout track: 'God Sent You' – It's easy to glean from the title that the potent ballad will be rooted in the idea of, as Barbra Streisand tells us, people who need people. Organ chords provide a gospel tinge, but piano drives the song as Springsteen dispenses his gratitude for a savior as he sings, 'God sent you to me/a prayer of safety and salvation/God sent you to me/when faith was so hard to see.' 'Somewhere North of Nashville' Springsteen's 1995 album, 'The Ghost of Tom Joad,' spotlighted his folk instincts, sometimes to dreary effect. But Springsteen wasn't spending all of his time ruminating. This barnburner recorded at the same time as 'Joad' confirms that he saved plenty of energy to tear through 12 songs with the band live in the studio. The result is Springsteen unleashed. He's joined by E-Streeters Danny Federici (who died in 2008), Garry Tallent and Soozie Tyrell, as well as drummer Gary Mallaber and pedal steel ace Marty Rifkin as they embark on a jaunty tour of country, honky tonk and rockabilly. Springsteen's voice veers from sandpapery growl ('Repo Man,' 'Detail Man') to silky twang ('Poor Side of Town,' 'Silver Mountain'), while the music audaciously mashes pedal steel guitar, boogie woogie piano, harmonica and string orchestrations as seamlessly as if that collective sound is routine. Standout track: 'Repo Man' – The first song on the album bursts with natural electricity. Springsteen's wink-and-smile delivery of amusing lyrics ('A repo man lives by a code/you don't pay and I own your little piece of the road'), Rifkin's skilled dance on pedal steel guitar and a final, fluttering cymbal crash collide for one hell of a boot-stompin' party. 'Inyo' During the 1990s, Springsteen headed west of his beloved New Jersey and spent time driving his motorcycle throughout the Southwest and California. He took long drives along the California aqueduct through Inyo County and into Death Valley and writes strikingly about the immigrant experience, particularly the generational erosion of shared culture between Mexico and the U.S. The 10 vivid recollections on the album, which Springsteen calls one of his favorites, shudder with sadness. Many of the songs feature only Springsteen with Soozie Tyrell's weeping violin or light instrumentation from coproducer Ron Aniello on bass, guitar and drums. Springsteen also turned to the roots of his album, notably on 'Adelita,' which features mariachi musicians to complement his rich storytelling talent. 'Your portrait I carry deep in my breast pocket/my rifle firing into the campaña/I ride with you 'round my heart/protected from this death by beauty,' he sings. Standout track: 'The Lost Charro' – Springsteen isn't celebrated for having a particularly pretty voice. Rugged character is more his thing. But he locates a rarely heard upper register here as he takes on the persona of a proud former 'charro' (cowboy) who misses his past while picking fruit in fields in his current life. The full chorus of mariachi band members at the end completes this tale of a spiritual dreamer. 'Twilight Hours' Springsteen says he saved these dozen songs recorded during his 'Western Stars' era because they were 'intentionally middle of the road.' It might sound like a slight, but what Springsteen crafted is an album that pulls from '70's California pop and the melodic songwriting of Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb. Songs such as 'I'll Stand By You' and 'Dinner at Eight' were born with a softer touch, nudged along by a sumptuous assembly of strings, piano and polished choruses. This is the closest we've heard Springsteen to pure pop music – the kind with complex elements that sound effortless in the hands of a pro – and it's a suit that fits him well. Standout track: 'Two of Us' – A sweet love song spiked with strings, a gently plucked Glockenspiel and glorious key changes. It's Springsteen at his most Bacharach-ian, winding through a swoony melody as he stretches his voice to sing, 'Through one more mile, one more town/there's one heart, I can trust/so we'll keep moving for the two of us.' 'Perfect World' The opening swing of piano and guitar on first track 'I'm Not Sleeping' is a signal that these 10 songs will embody the E Street Band style not heard as palpably on the other albums. It's a mostly fair indicator. 'Idiot's Delight' clip-clops through rowdy harmonica that suits the song's bitter lyrics ('The jackals leave here laughing as they slip into the night/how did something so beautiful turn into an idiot's delight') and a towering chorus and gritty guitar power 'Another Thin Line' into familiar E Street territory (and yes, that is cowbell you hear). There are several stylistic shifts throughout the release that Springsteen says is the only one of the 'lost' seven that wasn't conceived as an album. That is evident in the title track that returns him to piano-backed twang, balanced by the soulful pop singalong, 'You Lifted Me Up.' And hello, Steven Van Zandt on background vocals, whose appearance aptly encapsulates the album's intent. Standout track: 'Rain in the River' – Squealing guitar notes lead the song into one of Springsteen's most muscular vocals. Recorded around the same time as 'Western Stars' (2010-11), the swelling anthem is all Springsteen, with an assist from Ron Aniello on organ and drums, but sounds like the work of 100 men.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bruce Springsteen delves into Mexican Revolution on new 'Tracks II' single
Here's to the brave female 'soldaderas' of the Mexican Revolution. 'Adelita' by Bruce Springsteen tells their story, and it's the latest preview single from the upcoming 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums' box set, due Friday, June 27. The new track was released Thursday, May 29, and it's part of the 'Inyo' lost album. 'Adelita' is a stirring ballad, or more specifically a corrido, with echoes of battle, blood and honor swept up in the dusty haze of history. The Mexican Revolution took place 1910 to 1920. Listen to 'Adelita' here. 'Inyo' is a Native American word that means 'dwelling place of the great spirit,' and it's also the name of Inyo County, located in the eastern central part of California. The album was partly inspired by the 1990s motorcycle rides across the Southwest Springsteen took when he lived in Los Angeles. 'There was constant border reporting in the Los Angeles Times, so it was a big part of your life,' said Springsteen in a statement. ' 'Inyo' was a record I wrote in California during long drives along the California aqueduct, up through Inyo County on my way to Yosemite or Death Valley. I was enjoying that kind of writing so much. "(On 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' tour 1995 to 1997), I would go home to the hotel room at night and continue to write in that style because I thought I was going to follow up 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' with a similar record, but I didn't. That's where 'Inyo' came from. It's one of my favorites.' 'Inyo' is primarily a solo album, but the Boss does have some help. Mariachi musicians Luis Villalobos, Alberto Villalobos, Angel Ramos, Humberto Manuel Flores Gutierrez, David Glukh, Jorge Espinosa and Miguel Ponce are heard on 'Adelita' and several other songs. For the release, Team Springsteen shared record notes on Thursday: 'Thematically, several songs on the record examine the Mexican diaspora, how border crossing between Mexico and the U.S. has affected generations and the cultural losses endured as a result. It's a musical thread that Springsteen first began to examine by covering Ry Cooder's 'Across the Borderline' on his 1988 Tunnel of Love Express tour.' The world 'Adelita' has a strong association for Springsteen and his fans. The Boss' mom was named Adele. The song 'Adelita' is the fifth to be shared from 'Tracks II' following 'Rain in the River' from the lost album 'Perfect World'; 'Blind Spot' from 'Streets of Philadelphia Sessions'; 'Faithless' from Faithless'; and 'Repo Man' from 'Somewhere North of Nashville.' Springsteen's upcoming 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums' includes 83 songs on the seven unreleased albums recorded between 1983 and 2018. Follow That Dream Don't Back Down On Our Love Little Girl Like You Johnny Bye Bye Sugarland Seven Tears Fugitive's Dream Black Mountain Ballad Jim Deer County Fair My Hometown One Love Don't Back Down Richfield Whistle The Klansman Unsatisfied Heart Shut Out The Light Fugitive's Dream (Ballad) Blind Spot Maybe I Don't Know You Something In The Well Waiting On The End Of The World The Little Things We Fell Down One Beautiful Morning Between Heaven and Earth Secret Garden The Farewell Party The Desert (Instrumental) Where You Goin', Where You From Faithless All God's Children A Prayer By The River (Instrumental) God Sent You Goin' To California The Western Sea (Instrumental) My Master's Hand Let Me Ride My Master's Hand (Theme) Repo Man Tiger Rose Poor Side of Town Delivery Man Under A Big Sky Detail Man Silver Mountain Janey Don't You Lose Heart You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone Stand On It Blue Highway Somewhere North of Nashville Inyo Indian Town Adelita The Aztec Dance The Lost Charro Our Lady of Monroe El Jardinero (Upon the Death of Ramona) One False Move Ciudad Juarez When I Build My Beautiful House Sunday Love Late in the Evening Two of Us Lonely Town September Kisses Twilight Hours I'll Stand By You High Sierra Sunliner Another You Dinner at Eight Follow The Sun I'm Not Sleeping Idiot's Delight Another Thin Line The Great Depression Blind Man Rain In The River If I Could Only Be Your Lover Cutting Knife You Lifted Me Up Perfect World Subscribe to for the latest on the New Jersey music scene. Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at cjordan@ This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Bruce Springsteen sings Mexican corrido on Tracks II single
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hot night at the honky tonk on new Bruce Springsteen song 'Repo Man' from 'Tracks 2'
Emilio Estevez, eat your heart out. The new Bruce Springsteen song 'Repo Man' is a rollicking jam of Western swing with a beaut of a steel guitar and crackling piano that gets the heart pumping. Kind of like a repo man on assignment. The repossessed car is apparently outside a honky tonk. You can listen at 'Repo Man' is part of the unreleased 'Somewhere North of Nashville' album, which will be included on the 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums,' out Friday, June 27, via Sony Music. The 'Nashville' album was inspired by the sounds of 'honky tonk, rockabilly and uptempo country,' according to a Shore Fire Media release, and recorded simultaneously with 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' in the summer of 1995. The players include the late Danny Federici, Garry Tallent and Gary Mallaber — and a pedal steel from Marty Rifkin and fiddle from Soozie Tyrell. 'What happened was I wrote all these country songs at the same time I wrote 'The Ghost of Tom Joad.' Those sessions completely overlap each other," Springsteen said in a statement. "I'm singing 'Repo Man' in the afternoon and 'The Line' at night. So the country record got made right along with 'The Ghost of Tom Joad.' ' 'Streets of Philadelphia' got me connected to my socially conscious or topical songwriting," the statement continued. "So that's where 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' came from. But at the same time I had this country streak that was also running through those sessions, and I ended up making a country record on the side.' The duel album recording method was not new to the Boss. 'Born in the U.S.A.' was recorded at the same time 'Nebraska' was recorded in the early 1980s. As such, two tracks recorded for 'Born in the U.S.A.,' 'Stand On It' and 'Janey Don't You Lose Heart,' are included on 'Somewhere North of Nashville.' Springsteen has previously released the singles 'Rain In The River,' 'Blind Spot' and 'Faithless' from the upcoming 'Tracks 2.' Elsewhere, Springsteen and the E Street Band kick off 'The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour' on Wednesday, May 14, at the Co-op Live in Manchester, England. The 16-date tour is the final leg of the critically acclaimed E Street tour that began Feb. 1, 2023, at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. As for Estevez, he's the star, along with Harry Dean Stanton, of the 1984 cult classic 'Repo Man.' Subscribe to for the latest on the New Jersey music scene. Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at cjordan@ This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Bruce Springsteen brings honky-tonk heat on new Repo Man
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bruce Springsteen Boosts Mexican ‘Soldaderas' On ‘Adelita'
Bruce Springsteen pays tribute the female Mexican 'soldaderas' who aided the country's fight for independence on 'Adelita,' the latest preview from his upcoming seven-album rarities boxed set, Tracks II. The song is housed within Inyo, the previously unreleased material on which was written in the mid-1990s during Springsteen's non-E Street Band The Ghost of Tom Joad period. 'Inyo was a record I wrote in California during long drives along the California aqueduct, up through Inyo County on my way to Yosemite or Death Valley,' says the Boss. 'I was enjoying that kind of writing so much. [On The Ghost of Tom Joad tour] I would go home to the hotel room at night and continue to write in that style because I thought I was going to follow up The Ghost of Tom Joad with a similar record, but I didn't. That's where Inyo came from. It's one of my favorites.' More from Spin: Pavement Returning To Headline Levitation Fest The Rumjacks Embrace Their History with 'Dead Anthems' John Fogerty Reclaims Creedence 'Legacy' With New Re-Records Inyo is largely a Springsteen solo project, although mariachi musicians Luis Villalobos, Alberto Villalobos, Angel Ramos, Humberto Manuel Flores Gutierrez, David Glukh, Jorge Espinosa and Miguel Ponce all appear throughout. Tracks II is out on June 27 from Columbia and covers decades' worth of never-before-heard recordings, including 1983 sessions between the albums Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A. and a complete album born out of work on the theme song for the 1993 movie Philadelphia. Springsteen and the E Street Band are on tour through early July in Europe, where the Boss' onstage comments about Donald Trump have lately become national news. An EP featuring those speeches is available on all DSPs. To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tom Morello Joins Team Springsteen, Rages Against Donald Trump During Festival Set: ‘F–k That Guy!'
Tom Morello has never been one to mince words when it comes to his thoughts on Donald Trump. The firebrand Rage Against the Machine guitarist and solo star joined his friend and fellow rock agitator Bruce Springsteen over the weekend in giving a NSFW salute No. 27 from the stage. Performing at the Boston Calling 2025 music festival on Sunday (May 25), Morello took the stage in front of a towering backdrop that featured a series of images of the president amid a sea of oversized buttons that spelled out 'F–K TRUMP.' If that message wasn't clear enough, at one point during his set, Morello flipped his instrument up to play with his teeth and revealed another pointed message aimed at the current administration taped to the back of his guitar that read 'F–k I.C.E.,' in seeming reference to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency charged with implementing Trump's aggressive deportation policy. More from Billboard Here Are the 2025 American Music Awards Winners (Updating Live) Shakira Falls Onstage During 'Whenever, Wherever' Performance at Montreal Concert Billy Joel's Daughter Alexa Ray Joel Offers Encouraging Words About Dad's Health Diagnosis Introducing a cover of Bruce Springsteen's 'The Ghost of Tom Joad,' Morello dedicated the track to The Boss, noting that the rocker has been 'in a tussle with the president lately' after the Jersey giant recently dubbed the current administration 'corrupt, incompetent and treasonous,' a broadside that raised the ire of the commander in chief. 'Bruce is going after Trump because Bruce, his whole life, he's been about truth, justice, democracy, equality,' Morello said. 'And Trump is mad at him because Bruce draws a much bigger audience. F–k that guy.' According to at the top of his set, Morello invited fans to enjoy 'the last big event before they throw us in jail.' In the midst of the Trump administration's attack on universities it claims are not doing enough to combat antisemitism, Morello also mentioned his alma mater, Harvard University, which has particularly drawn Trump's ire. In its latest actions, the administration has threatened to strip the school of more than $3 billion in grants following Trump's order to freeze more than $2.2 billion in federal funding grants for the university and threats to revoke its tax-exempt status. Morello praised Harvard's recent decision to offer a free online course called 'We the People: Civic Engagement in a Constitutional Democracy.' Morello, who graduated with honors from Harvard in 1986 with a B.A. in political science, described the class as a primer on 'basic U.S. government, understanding the Constitution, and how to recognize a dictatorship takeover of your country.' The lash out against Trump by Morello amid the president's slash-and-burn reshaping of democratic norms came after Springsteen kicked off his Land of Hope and Dreams tour in Manchester, England on May 14 by lambasting the blitz of strong-arm actions that many political pundits have deemed authoritarian. 'In my home, the America I love, the America I've written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,' Springsteen told the crowd. 'Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against the authoritarianism, and let freedom ring.' As is his wont, Trump replied to Springsteen's harsh words with one of his all-caps Truth Social disses, calling the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer 'highly overrated' and 'dumb as a rock.' The president continued, 'Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country.' On the precipice of what many financial experts say could be a ruinous global recession sparked by Trump's unpredictable, see-saw tariffs, the president continued his attacks on Springsteen over the ensuing days, adding in another of his favorite targets: Taylor Swift. On May 16, the 78-year-old leader of the free world wrote, 'Has anyone noticed that, since i said 'I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,' she's no longer 'HOT?'' While Swift has not responded to the unprovoked attack to date, Springsteen was unbowed, doubling down on his disdain for Trump on May 17, telling a crowd in Manchester, 'Things are happening right now that are altering the very nature of our country's democracy, and they're too important to ignore… In my home, they're persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. That's happening now… In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world's poorest children to sickness and death. That's happening now. In my country, they're taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers,' calling Trump an 'unfit president' who is running a 'rogue government.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
