Thanks to the generosity of a good man, I've recently been fortunate to hear about an hour of audio from a band rehearsal in March/April 1982. This is fascinating, since this is around the time of the Electric Nebraska sessions, prior to Springsteen's decision to release a solo album in Nebraska. What I heard is some of the most interesting outtakes I've heard. Among this hour are five undocumented songs, three songs that ended up in BITUSA, and several alternative versions of other songs that we are aware of, either via circulating outtakes or eventual inclusion on Tracks.
The undocumented tracks are:
Stop The War
Bells Of San Salvador
We Talk (possible title)
and two with unknown titles
Unfortunately, like many Telegraph Hill recordings, Bruce's voice is buried in the mix, and deciphering the lyrics is hard going, or almost impossible in some cases. I can make wild guesses for the titles of the last two, but that's all.
There's one true "Electric Nebraska" track in a band version of Reason To Believe. First time I heard it, I had chills going up my spine. Unbelievable.
The BITUSA tracks are Glory Days, Working On The Highway (with different final verse) and Darlington County.
The other songs are Baby I'm So Cold (basically Loose Ends set to the music from Follow That Dream), A Good Man Is Hard To Find and TV Movie.
I've gone into more detail on Brucebase - see the Brucebase Born In The USA studio sessions page for more detail.
For me, the stunning thing is this tape is clearly the tip of the iceberg as far as unheard outtakes and rehearsals go. Hopefully one day someone will realise there's no point sitting on these recordings, and let them out. Please!
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