ON THE TRACKS 4.0 - 1981/82 solo

KEY : C, SM, BSB : Demo : Greetings : WIE : BTR : Darkness : 1979 Solo : River : 1981 Solo : Nebraska : BITUSA : TOL : HT : LT : 1993 Solo : GH : GOTJ : Tracks : Rising : Essential : Devils and Dust : Seeger Sessions : Magic

1981-82 SOLO “WORK-IN-PROGRESS” HOME CASSETTE RECORDINGS

The following solo acoustic practice recordings span about a 12-month period, from spring 1981 to spring 1982, although the majority of the material is from the last 3 months of 1981. They material can be broken down into four general groupings:

1) Recordings made at Springsteen’s home in Colts Neck, NJ from late March to early April 1981 during a break in The River Tour

2) Recordings made at Springsteen’s home in Colts Neck, NJ in late June 1981 during a short break in The River Tour

3) Recordings made at Springsteen’s home in Colts Neck, NJ from mid-Sep 1981 thru May 1982 (mostly 1981) following the end of The River Tour

4) Recordings made at Springsteen’s home in Colt’s Neck, NJ from mid- Sep to Dec 1981 following the end of The River Tour (featuring early development of many of the Nebraska songs)

These are not professionally made recordings. They were never intended to be. It appears Springsteen only used a common, run-of-the-mill cassette recorder. None of these songs exhibit a finished songwriting product. These are song fragments, both musically and lyrically. There is much stopping and starting heard, as Springsteen records bits and pieces, manually stops the recorder then returns sometime later to add more ideas…and so on and so forth.

These recordings can provide an interesting, though often monotonous, glimpse into how Bruce goes about his creative writing process. But very little of this material is listener-friendly and is probably not worth obtaining unless you’re a die-hard completist. Springsteen definitely progressed some of these song fragments and ideas to completion – we have the studio end product to attest to that. However many of these titles are likely to have gone little further than what one hears on these tapes.

1) Recorded at Springsteen’s home in Colts Neck, NJ from late March to early April, 1981

FIST FULL OF DOLLARS - V1 3:44 FFOD
FIST FULL OF DOLLARS - V2   2:24 FFOD

RIDING HORSE – V1 0.40 FFOD
RIDING HORSE – V2 0.50  FFOD

JOHNNY BYE BYE 2:32 FFOD

ROBERT FORD AND JESSE JAMES 1:15  FFOD

PARTY LIGHTS 1:05  FFOD

MY HEART IS AN OPEN BOOK 1:30 FFOD

DANGER ZONE 1:26  FFOD

SUMMER NIGHT 1:15 FFOD

LION’S DEN  0:55  FFOD

OPEN ALL NIGHT 1:24 FFOD

2) Recorded at Springsteen’s home in Colts Neck, NJ in late June 1981

ALL I NEED    2:50  LM-7

FADE TO BLACK - V1 4:15  LM-7
FADE TO BLACK – V2 0.50  LM-7

3) Recorded at Springsteen’s home in Colts Neck, NJ from mid-Sep 1981 thru May 1982

FADE TO BLACK 0:45 LM-10

DOWNBOUND TRAIN  0.34 LM-10

TRUE LOVE IS HARD TO COME BY – V1 0:30 LM-10
TRUE LOVE IS HARD TO COME BY – V2 0.15 LM-10
TRUE LOVE IS HARD TO COME BY – V3  1:40   LM-10
TRUE LOVE IS HARD TO COME BY – V4   1:10  LM-10
TRUE LOVE IS HARD TO COME BY – V5 1:25  LM-10

LONG WAY HOME (instrumental)   1:16 LM-10

UNTITLED (instrumental)  1:20 LM-10

WAGES OF SIN – V1      2:00 LM-10
WAGES OF SIN – V2  0:20 LM-10
WAGES OF SIN – V3  3:05   LM-10
WAGES OF SIN – V4 2:20  LM-10
WAGES OF SIN – V5 5:10 LM-10

WHEELS MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND 1:13  LM-10

I NEED YOU – V1 2:00  LM-10
I NEED YOU – V2   0:46   LM-10

THEY KILLED HIM IN THE STREET – V1 3:13 LM-10
THEY KILLED HIM IN THE STREET – V2 0:34   LM-10

RULED BY THE GUN – V1     2:21 LM-10
RULED BY THE GUN – V2  1:27  LM-10
RULED BY THE GUN – V3   5:07  LM-10
RULED BY THE GUN – V4    0:39     LM-10

JESSE JAMES – V1 4:10 LM-10
JESSE JAMES – V2 1:39 LM-10

YOUR LOVE IS ALL AROUND ME – V1 5:51   LM-10
YOUR LOVE IS ALL AROUND ME – V2  3:18    LM-10
YOUR LOVE IS ALL AROUND ME – V3 0:49 LM-10

BABY I’M SO COLD   3:45  LM-10

DON’T BACK DOWN 0:55 private cdr

GLORY DAYS       1:59 LM-10

JAMES LINCOLN DEAR 4:14  LMEC2

4) Recorded at Springsteen’s home in Colt’s Neck, NJ from mid-Sep to Dec 1981

CLUB SOUL CITY 0:55     FFOD

VIETNAM – V1  3:15   FFOD
VIETNAM – V2  2:00  FFOD

FADE TO BLACK – V1     3:01 FFOD
FADE TO BLACK – V2  2:57  FFOD

LOVE IS A DANGEROUS THING 3:25  FFOD

JOHNNY 99 - V1 3:50 FFOD
JOHNNY 99 - V2 3:26  FFOD

BORN IN THE USA – V1  2:22 FFOD
BORN IN THE USA – V2   0:30 FFOD
BORN IN THE USA – V3 4:45  FFOD
BORN IN THE USA – V4 3:10  FFOD
BORN IN THE USA – V5 2:55 FFOD
BORN IN THE USA – V6 4:00 FFOD

USED CARS – V1 3:17 FFOD
USED CARS – V2 2:30   FFOD
USED CARS – V3 2:45 FFOD

ATLANTIC CITY  1:40 FFOD

DOWNBOUND TRAIN 1:11 FFOD

THE LOSIN’ KIND     5:16 FFOD

RED RIVER ROCK (instrumental)  0:57    FFOD

NEBRASKA – V1   1:09  LM-1
NEBRASKA – V2 1:05  LM-1

PRECIOUS MEMORIES   1:10 LM-1

DREAM BABY    0:32 LM-1

Note: “Precious Memories”, “Dream Baby” and “Red River Rock” are warm-up covers of other artist’s songs.

Page updated January 3, 2006

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