Bruce Springsteen’s treasure trove of lost albums, Tracks II, is released this week and the Boss has been talking about those records in an extensive interview with Rolling Stone.
In a wide-ranging conversation, Springsteen talked about how in the liner notes of the box set he says that he “wasn’t happy” with Born In The USA and felt that it didn’t “connect” like other albums, a strange thing to say about a 30 million selling record.
“It was a record I put out. It became the record I made, not necessarily the record that I was interested in making,” he suggests.
“I was interested in taking Nebraska (his album previous to that) and making a full record that had somewhat that same feeling. If you hear My Hometown and you hear Born in the USA, they were sort of the bookends I intended. And the rest of the stuff was… just what I had at the time.
"Those were the songs I wrote. Those were the songs I recorded.”
“From conception to execution, it was not necessarily the record that in my mind I had planned on, but that’s the way creativity works. You go in the studio, you have an idea. It’s not necessarily what you come out with. So that was just the situation of that record for me personally.”
One of the most intriguing of the ‘lost’ albums is the Streets Of Philadelphia Sessions, which dates from 1993/94 when Springsteen was writing, for the first time, with synths. He explains how it was the title track that took him into that direction. “I set up a small drum loop on that. I liked the way it worked. It interplayed with synthesizers, which was an instrument I was beginning to write on.
"And so the natural thing to do after that was, I said, ‘Well, I’m going to try and create a whole album with the basic sound of a synthesizers and drum loops.’ And so, that’s what I did.”
The record was all mixed and being sequenced when Springsteen began to have second thoughts.
"I could never quite get the sequence correct," he said, "and I felt…. I’ve had a conversation going with my fans for 50 years now, which I try to honour as best as I can; and one of the ways I honour that conversation is by trying to keep its context open. And I said, ‘Well, gee, I’m not sure.’
“After the three records I wrote about relationships and the nature of the record, I just said, ‘I’m just not sure. Is this too closed off at this moment? Is it the right time?’ A lot of releasing records for me comes down to timing, and it was one of the records where, for better or for worse, I didn’t think the timing was right.”
Springsteen also confirmed that he has two albums ready to go – one is a second volume of his soul covers project Only The Strong Survive. The second, which is “all finished” is a new solo record, without the E Street Band, which he said “will come out in ’26 sometime”.
In the meantime Tracks II: The Lost Albums arrives this Friday
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