Bruce Springsteen Will Release Seven ‘Lost Albums' in June
On June 27, Springsteen will release 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums,' a collection of 83 songs on seven CDs (or nine vinyl LPs), of which 74 have never been officially released in any form, according to an announcement from the star on Thursday.
Fans have long known that Springsteen has withheld many songs throughout his career. Over the years the singer-songwriter has made stray comments about shelved or unfinished recordings, sometimes seeming to itch to get them completed and released.
But even many Bruceologists may be surprised at the scale of 'Tracks II,' which is organized as seven discrete projects from 1983 to 2018, each with its own production and stylistic approach. Among them are working tapes from Springsteen's fruitful pre-'Born in the U.S.A.' period and a hip-hop-influenced album from the early 1990s.
''The Lost Albums' were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released,' Springsteen, 75, said in a statement.
'LA Garage Sessions '83' has 18 songs from the period when Springsteen was developing 'Born in the U.S.A.,' his monster 1984 hit, a moment of transition from the raw solo demos that were released as 'Nebraska' (1982). Many of those titles, like 'Fugitive's Dream' and 'Don't Back Down on Our Love,' have long circulated among fans as bootlegs, but are getting their first official release on 'Tracks II.'
'Streets of Philadelphia Sessions' peels back the curtain on another phase of Springsteen's career. After using synthesizers and a drum machine to record 'Streets of Philadelphia,' a solo song for Jonathan Demme's 1993 film 'Philadelphia' — which went on to win best original song at the Academy Awards — Springsteen continued to experiment with the format, and word filtered out about a dark LP with a 'hip-hop edge.' But even after fully preparing it for release, Springsteen opted to hold the album back.
In 'Born to Run,' his 2016 memoir, Springsteen said he decided that the lyrics on the album, about troubled relationships, were not fully realized, and that he had grown concerned about 'a faint disconnect with my audience' from previous albums, like 'Tunnel of Love,' from 1987, that had explored similar themes. 'I had to come to terms with the fact that after my year of work, writing, recording, mixing,' he added, 'it was going on the shelf. That's where she sits.'
Now that 10-track LP is finally coming out.
The other album collections in 'Tracks II' include 'Faithless,' from a film project that was never made; the country-inflected 'Somewhere North of Nashville'; 'Inyo,' with songs like 'Ciudad Juarez' and 'The Aztec Dance' that hint at Mexican culture and America's southern border; and 'Twilight Hours,' a rare example of orchestrated, traditional-pop Springsteen. He describes the last album, 'Perfect World,' as 'the one thing on this that wasn't initially conceived as an album,' but rather 'something I put together.'
The first 'Tracks' collection, in 1998, was chocked with more B-sides, outtakes and recordings, among them the Springsteen's stark solo original demo of the song 'Born in the U.S.A.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
16 hours ago
- USA Today
Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong wow in new 'Springsteen' movie footage
NEW YORK — The King of New Jersey is taking his Hollywood throne. Emmy winners Jeremy Allen White ('The Bear') and Jeremy Strong ('Succession') star in the highly anticipated Bruce Springsteen biopic 'Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere' (in theaters Oct. 24), which debuted its first trailer last month. On July 29, Disney shared more new footage from the film with a small group of journalists, as the Mouse House touted a slew of upcoming movies from its slate including 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' (Dec. 19) and 'Tron: Ares' (Oct. 10). The 'Springsteen' clips were introduced in a prerecorded message by writer/director Scott Cooper, who shared his desire to focus on a specific chapter of the rock icon's career: the creation of his riskier, more downbeat 1982 album 'Nebraska.' 'It was never about telling the whole story of Bruce Springsteen,' said Cooper, adding he wanted to avoid 'a traditional biopic' in favor of something darker and more introspective. 'Deliver Me From Nowhere' trailer: See Jeremy Allen White transform into Bruce Springsteen Jeremy Allen White nails Bruce Springsteen's singing voice in new movie In one clip, Bruce (White) sits at a Manhattan diner with manager Jon Landau (Strong), looking disheveled and withdrawn as he says that it's hard to come back home after touring. 'The quiet can get a little loud,' Strong's character tells him. 'Coming off the road has never been easy for you. You just need to give it some time. It'll pass.' The two men walk out of the diner and down the block, where a passerby shouts, 'Love you, Bruce!' 'You see that?' Landau says, smiling. 'I'll tell you, hit singles aren't so bad.' The next clip is a flashback to Bruce's childhood, in which his dad (Stephen Graham) points to a large house and says that 'all your problems will disappear' if you have money. The scene cuts to an adult Bruce strumming on his guitar, with White doing an uncanny Springsteen impression as he warbles 'Mansion on a Hill.' Although the actor only bears a passing resemblance to Springsteen, his spot-on vocals and soulful essence may be enough to land him in Oscar contention this coming awards season. Jamie Lee Curtis, James L. Brooks joke about being in a 'throuple' Throughout the roughly hourlong presentation, Disney screened rough footage from the animated 'Zootopia 2' (Nov. 26) and the just-released trailer for 'Predator: Badlands' (Nov. 7) with Elle Fanning. James L. Brooks, the film and TV legend behind 'The Simpsons' and 'Broadcast News,' was also on hand with Jamie Lee Curtis to share a handful of new clips from their feel-good family drama 'Ella McCay' (Dec. 12), about a rising legal star (Emma Mackey) juggling personal and professional responsibilities. The star-studded film features Woody Harrelson, Ayo Edebiri, Kumail Nanjiani, and Jack Lowden, and marks Brooks' first movie in 15 years. 'Here's the amazing truth about Jamie Lee,' Brooks told reporters as he introduced the footage. 'She's everything you could ever want her to be.' Curtis, who plays Ella's aunt Helen, said it was a 'life-changing experience' to work with Brooks. 'At first I was terrified, but now I'm massively in love with him,' Curtis quipped. 'His wife, Mrs. Brooks, and I have come to an understanding. The word 'throuple' has been (thrown around)!' Brooks said Curtis was his only choice to play Helen, which the Oscar-winning actress handwaved away. 'I can take it! I've been a replacement part many times,' Curtis said. 'I was a replacement part in 'Knives Out,' I was a replacement part in 'Freaky Friday,'' whose sequel arrives in theaters Aug. 8. 'You know what? Life hinges on a couple seconds you never see coming.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Photos: Star-studded Oxfordshire wedding of Apple founder's daughter
The daughter of Apple's late founder Steve Jobs got married in a star-studded occasion in west Oxfordshire. Eve Jobs, the youngest of the tech icon's four children, married gold-medal-winning equestrian Harry Charles at St Michael's And All Angels Church, in Great Tew, on Saturday, July 26. Photos from outside the church show bridesmaids arriving dressed in red, among them American equestrian Jessica Rae Springsteen, daughter of legendary musician Bruce Springsteen. READ MORE: Truck Festival: Thousands of music fans flock to farm Jessica Rae Springsteen (centre) (Image: Ben Birchall) A purple Rolls Royce was also spotted outside as well as a classic Land Rover. This took place one year on from the pair confirming their relationship after they were first spotted in public at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. A self-described 'horse girl', Eve started riding when she was just six years old and was cheering on her fiancé in Paris last year. Posting at the time on the social media platform Instagram, she said: "Team Gold. Beyond proud of you, my love."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Billy Joel Went to Extremes. A New Five-Hour Doc Shows How and Why
Over the course of its two parts and five hours, Billy Joel: And So It Goes recruits many of the title legend's musician pals, from Bruce Springsteen and Sting to, surprisingly, Nas, who speaks to the way 'Piano Man' still resonates. They all testify to Joel's songwriting chops, his everydude way with a lyric, or the times he's bristled, to say the least, at bad reviews. But it takes one of Joel's non-music friends, Howard Stern, to pinpoint what makes the documentary, debuting this weekend on HBO, more engrossing than anyone may have expected. As Stern says, Joel's story is 'way deeper psychologically than Billy wants to know.' From the start, you can practically feel directors Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin wanting their well-crafted film to focus on Joel's music and career. And why not? It's been a pretty remarkable one: An often-bullied Long Island kid haunted by feelings of abandonment finally, after several false starts, becomes an arena-packing pop star, thanks to songs whose old-school pop classicism didn't always feel in step with the rock & roll times. Along the way he marries a supermodel, becomes one of the few Seventies pop stars embraced by MTV, writes enough enduring hits to pack a future jukebox musical, and lands in his current role as the boomer Sinatra also taken to heart by millennials and Gen Z. More from Rolling Stone Billy Joel's 'And So It Goes' Documentary: How to Watch Part One Online Billy Joel Details How 'Music Saved My Life' in 'And So It Goes' Documentary Trailer Lena Dunham Says She Took an 'Intentional Break' From Acting After 'Girls' But throughout And So It Goes, Joel's personality — stubborn, pugnacious, at times self-destructive — keeps barging into the narrative, threatening to derail his career, his personal life or both. Joel's dark side isn't news; in the quippy words of a newspaper headline on one of the many traffic accidents that plagued him earlier this century, 'Joel Produces Another Smash Hit.' (Give that editor a belated raise.) But that period of drinking and self-immolating impulses was hardly the first such moment in his life, and this portrait aims to dig deep into his psyche and probe what's haunted and dogged Joel since childhood. For all its infomercial moments, including a few too many testimonials and scenes of cheering fans in concert halls, And So It Goes also has moments of startling candor rare for the current state of authorized music docs. By the end, you're amazed not just that songs like 'Vienna' have impacted on a new generation, but that Joel managed to survive all the times he drove himself into a ditch (literally and physically) and left many bodies — spouses, band members, loyal producers — in his wake. The film is as much a study of Joel's conflicted brain as the creation of his albums, and it's richer for it. For those who know the basics of Joel's story, And So It Goes sticks with a fairly predictable narrative. We see him as a young man with floppy bangs playing organ in the Long Island garage band the Hassles, forming the proto-Spinal Tap heavy-music duo Attila, and coping with a first solo album (Cold Spring Harbor) botched in its completion, after which he's saddled with problematic business contracts. Once again we hear how he relocates to L.A. and takes a gig in a lounge to make money and hide out, resulting in, yes, his breakthrough song 'Piano Man.' We see how The Stranger finally transformed him into the boisterous palooka of pop, how he met and married seeming polar opposite Christie Brinkley, achieved a second wind with 1989's Storm Front, made the decision to stop writing songs, and crashed so many vehicles that he literally became a Saturday Night Live sketch. But we also learn about the distant father whom Joel didn't see for decades, their awkward reunion, and the way that situation inspired 'Vienna'; his single mother's battles with drinking and depression; and the backstory of his Jewish grandparents, who owned a clothing factory next door to the site of the Nazi Party rallies in Nuremberg, Germany, and were very nearly sent to a concentration camp. Joel's pre-fame suicide attempts have been documented before, but their inclusion here indicates the first suggestion of the darkness that would overtake him in the future. Joel's first wife and later manager, Elizabeth Weber, also makes a rare public appearance, and she comes across as someone who was both tough on him and his band but also played a major role in salvaging his career (not to mention rescuing him from his Bad Billy side). In his role as a cooperating witness on his life, Joel, now looking like the weathered Long Island sailor he inhabited in 'The Downeaster 'Alexa,'' recounts or corroborates these stories with a blend of straightforwardness, melancholy, and defiance. ('I never had a DWI, so fuck you,' he says in response to reports of his accidents.) Naturally, the songs and albums that once flowed so effortlessly out of him are showcased aplenty. And as tired as one may be of hearing 'Movin' Out (Anthony's Song),' 'The Longest Time,' 'Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway), 'She's Got a Way,' and so many others for roughly the 7,879th time, it's easy to hear why they, or more obscure gems like 'Famous Last Words' or 'Say Goodbye to Hollywood,' have held up so well. In an era when singer-songwriter craft can often amount to lackadaisical strumming over threadbare melodies, Joel's songs feel like some of the last that may be covered 50 years from now. (As proven by snippets of oversung versions of 'New York State of Mind,' he's still still the best interpreter of that song, though.) Even when the songs remain churlish — 'Big Shot' or 'You May Be Right,' to name just two — it's nonetheless entertaining to hear the real-life stories that inspired them. Yes, Joel really did ride his 'motorcycle in the rain' in the latter, and Weber, who recounts the story, was not remotely amused, nor by the subsequent motorcycle accident that almost killed him. That tale is just one of many in the story that don't show Joel in an especially flattering light. 'I had a chip on my shoulder,' Joel admits at one point, and it's remarkable he could still stand up given how many chips he was balancing. From the moment he ditches his high school band to join the Hassles after they offer him a Hammond B3 organ, Joel doesn't seem to hesitate when it comes to pursuing his music or career no matter the fallout. After finally achieving a breakthrough with the Piano Man album, Joel released a prickly followup single, 'The Entertainer,' that took shots at the record company people who helped make 'Piano Man' a hit by trimming it down for radio. In one of several instances in which she grows visibly choked up over problems with their marriage, Brinkley recounts how Joel initially sided with his manager and ex-brother in law after she began suspecting that her husband was being ripped off. 'He trusted him more than he trusted me, which hurt,' she manages to get out. The rise and dissolution of the Joel-Brinkley marriage takes up a substantial chunk of the documentary's second half. Watching them descend from the smitten twosome in home movies and the 'Uptown Girl' video to a couple torn apart due to his on-the-road (and off-the-road) carousing makes for downright depressing viewing. Recounting their eventual divorce, Brinkley says, 'He didn't realize how much he could hurt people' when he was drinking. Then again, Joel also waylaid band members (like drummer Liberty DeVitto, still somewhat embittered about the way he was cast aside during the making of River of Dreams) and loyal producer, Phil Ramone, after deciding to move on from them later in his life. To their credit, Lacy and Levin don't sugarcoat any of this or the ways Joel flirted with disaster as his lifestyle got out of control. We see a bit of that SNL skit and plenty of those car-wreck headlines. His feud with Elton John, after John criticized his occasional touring partner in Rolling Stone, is recounted, as is Joel's rehab stint, the breakup of his third marriage (to chef and TV hostess Katie Lee), and his subsequent tumbling off the wagon yet again. Given his innate talent for churning out melodies, which rivals that of Elton John's and Paul McCartney's, Joel's decision to put a halt to writing pop songs remains baffling after more than 30 years. 'I was freed of the tyranny of the rhyme,' he says, seated per usual at a piano. As others venture to guess, maybe he didn't want his later songs to be unfavorably compared to his crowd-pleasers. But now that so many of his peers continue to turn out new material into their eighties, Joel's choice is even more striking. Was it another, perhaps subconscious way of undermining his career? Maybe not, but the doc makes you wonder. And So It Goes ends with a newly remarried Joel, enjoying he and fourth wife Alexis Roderick's two young children and admitting he's still trying to understand life and himself. (Cue footage of tree-encased home and estate, in contrast to earlier clips of desolate beaches that signaled isolation and depression.) For all his foibles, his reputation as the 'brat' of pop music, as one critic put it, Joel remains strangely endearing, almost lovable, by the time the final credits roll. Unlike most of the rock-vet pals who weigh in on his saga, he truly does seem like someone you'd want to share a beverage with — even if you worry he'll purposefully pour it onto your lap if you say the wrong thing. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Best 'Saturday Night Live' Characters of All Time Denzel Washington's Movies Ranked, From Worst to Best 70 Greatest Comedies of the 21st Century Solve the daily Crossword
