Watch Bruce Springsteen’s Engineer Share Unreleased 1984 Outtakes
There are all kinds of stories about the different versions of classic songs that Bruce Springsteen recorded before settling on the ones that we know. Nebraska, for instance, was supposed to be a full, rockin’ E Street Band album before Springsteen decided to release his spectral solo-acoustic demos instead. “Born In The USA,” by contrast, started out as a Nebraska-style stark acoustic song before becoming a stadium-shaking rocker. This past weekend, Toby Scott, Springsteen’s longtime recording engineer, played some snippets of those alternate-reality versions of Springsteen songs at a Mexican music industry trade show.
Video from Toby Scott’s presentation at this past weekend’s SoundCheck Xpo in Mexico City have been making the rounds among Springsteen fans for the past few days. During his 87-minute presentation, Scott played a few different takes of Springsteen recording “Born In The USA.” One of them was the solo-acoustic demo that Springsteen recorded in 1982, the Nebraska era. That version came out on Springsteen’s 1998 box set Tracks. But Scott also played a bit of a “Born In The USA” version that, as far as I know, is previously unheard — a bluesy and intense full-band take that’s nothing like the versions that we’ve already heard. You can hear a bit of that version in the video below, at the 23:49 mark.
Consider this a preview of all the unreleased Springsteen music that must eventually come out of the vaults someday.