New Bruce Springsteen covers are materializing like crazy this week, and not just the requisite "I'm On Fire" covers either. First came news of a Nicholas Krgovich's Boss Tape and access to its opening track, "Gave It A Name." Now we get a great one from Nation Of Language.
The Sub Pop synth-pop trio has released their version of "Tougher Than The Rest" from 1987's Tunnel Of Love. This one has been covered a lot (which Springsteen song hasn't?), including renditions by Emmylou Harris, John Mayer, Angel Olsen, Cher, Camera Obscura, Everything But The Girl, Travis Tritt, Chris LeDoux, Shawn Colvin, and more. Unsurprisingly, Nation Of Language ramp up the synth elements, in the process making the song their own.
A word from the band's Ian Devaney:
Like so many young New Jersey residents, I grew up listening to Springsteen, but this song somehow slipped by me during that formative era. I was really only exposed to it within the last few years, and it's followed me around since then.
I can remember finishing a particularly emotional show somewhere deep in last year's tour, and our sound engineer, Skinny, started playing it as our exit music. It caught me so hard that I stayed there, just offstage, and listened to the rest of the song blasting, mixed with the sounds of all of the people milling about the venue.
When we ultimately endeavored that we might try doing our own version of the song, we luckily had a Yamaha CS-80 at our disposal, the same synth model which featured pretty heavily across the Tunnel of Love sessions back in ’87. Knowing we were working with some of the same textures as the original made it a little less daunting to cover Bruce.
The "Tougher Than The Rest" cover will be released on a limited edition 7" next month along with B-side "The Conversation." In the meantime, you can hear the A-side below.
"Tougher Than The Rest" b/w "The Conversation" is out 5/29 via Sub Pop. Pre-order it here.
