Tag Archives: Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen

Unreleased – Bruce Springsteen – Protection

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Bruce Springsteen 1981

The Unreleased series

This is a new series (hopefully). We we seek out and present unreleased songs by various artists. Check out the About Us page and you’ll get a picture of what artists we are concentrating this series on. This does not mean that we will only do songs by these artists/groups, but our focus will be on that list.

We will start with a Born in the U.S.A. outtake by Bruce Springsteen. We are eagerly waiting for Tracks part 2, The Boss have a lot of great songs that are still unreleased.

I stand alone at my window
I see you waiting in the shadows down below
I feel your fingers on my face
I know I want to stay, but I want to run away

Our first unreleased track is Protection, here in a studio version by Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street band:

It was recorded in Jan-Feb 1982 at the Hit Factory in New York. “Protection” is written by Bruce Springsteen for Donna Summer. It was originally featured on the 1982 Donna Summer album which was produced by Quincy Jones.

Record executive David Geffen, a friend Jon Landau, asked Landau if his client could write something for Donna Summer who had joined his label Geffen Records. The idea was that Springsteen and Summer record the song as a duet, so Springsteen wrote Cover Me!

She could really sing and I disliked the veiled racism of the anti-disco movement
– Bruce  Springsteen (Songs)

However when Landau heard the result, Cover Me, he persuaded Springsteen to keep that song for himself. Bruce then wrote Protection.
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Bruce Springsteen, Music Calendar, Sound

Today: Bruce Springsteen released We shall overcome – The Seeger Sessions in 2006

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Bruce_Springsteen-We_Shall_Overcome_(The_Seeger_Sessions)-Frontal

We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions was released in 2006, it is the fourteenth studio album by Bruce Springsteen.

This is Springsteen’s first and so far only album of non-Springsteen material and has his interpretation of thirteen folk music songs made popular by activist folk musician Pete Seeger.

The record began in 1997, when Springsteen recorded “We Shall Overcome” for the Where Have All the Flowers Gone: the Songs of Pete Seeger tribute album, released the following year. Springsteen had not known much about Seeger given his rock and roll upbringing and orientation, and proceeded to investigate and listen to his music.

Jacob’s Ladder (Official video):

Via Soozie Tyrell, the violinist in the E Street Band, Springsteen hooked up with a group of lesser-known musicians from New Jersey and New York, and they recorded in an informal, large band setting in Springsteen’s New Jersey farm. In addition to Tyrell, previous Springsteen associates The Miami Horns as well as wife Patti Scialfa augmented the proceedings. This group would become The Sessions Band.

Bruce Springsteen – The Seeger Sessions Live, a video recording of a May 9, 2006 performance in London’s St Luke Old Street church, was filmed by the BBC.

Here is the full broadcast, Bruce Springsteen & The Seeger Sessions Band at St. Lukes , London:

Songs played:

John Henry, Oh Mary Don’t You Weep, How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?, Mrs. McGrath, My Oklahoma Home, Jacob’s Ladder, We Shall Overcome, Pay Me My Money Down
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Bob Dylan video, Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Springsteen concert, Live, video of the day

Videos of the day: Bruce Springsteen live Ahmason Theatre LA 1973

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ahmanson_1973_melody_maker 2

These three songs are all taken from one show, it was a triple bill held in the sold out 2,000-seat Ahmanson Theatre, with Bruce Springteen opening for Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show and headliner New Riders of the Purple Sage.

All three videos in great quality both sound and picture, enjoy!

Spirit in the night:

From Brucebase:

This concert is often confused with the private CBS Sales Convention show (see July 27 for details). However the Ahmanson Theatre show was a normal, public admission event, but incorporating an unusual format. Organized and promoted by CBS as ‘A Week To Remember’, seven consecutive nightly shows, each show featuring three different CBS artists. Bruce and the band flew to L.A. on April 30, stayed at the Hilton hotel, performed on May 1 and returned east on May 3. The above-mentioned setlist represents Bruce’s complete 40 minute performance. The recording of “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” from this show was issued promotionally by CBS on July 7 as part of its Playback EP series. The remainder of the audio from this show is uncirculating, except for the brief snippets of “Spirit In The Night” and “Thundercrack” that accompany its corresponding video snippets.

A wonderful version of Wild Billy’s Circus Story:

From Brucebase:

All seven shows in the Ahmanson series were filmed in color by Arnold Levine Productions on behalf of CBS, whose intention was to have material to show to reps at the CBS Sales Convention in July. This happened, Bruce’s complete performance was shown several times at the Convention, but has never been shown anywhere since. It remains in CBS’s vault. Brief snippets of “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” and “Thundercrack” were used in mid-1974 as part of a promo-only video clip created by CBS to promote the second album. This clip readily circulates and, indeed, was shown in the VH-1 Rockumentary. The frustratingly brief film excerpt of Springsteen performing “Spirit In The Night” on piano that was shown in the 1998 Bruce Springsteen: A Secret History BBC Documentary is from this show. “Tokyo” was preceded by the Ducky Slattery monologue and at the conclusion of “Thundercrack” a giant Garden State Parkway sign descended from the ceiling, the only time this prop was ever utilized (see photo). “Twist And Shout” was the encore. Three songs from this appearance (“Spirit In The Night”, “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” and “Thundercrack”) were officially released as (elaborately restored) bonus footage on the Wings For Wheels documentary DVD in 2005. However, “Thundercrack” is incomplete and cuts at just over ten minutes. An hour of raw footage from this show is now among collectors, featuring multiple versions of the three promotional tracks, each shot from a different camera angle. On this video you can also hear a brief snippet of the introduction to “Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?”.

Thundercrack (cut at just over ten minutes):

– Hallgeir

Jazz, Music Calendar

Today: Billie Holiday was born in 1915

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Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Harris April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed “Lady Day” by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

My two favorite songs by Billie Holiday are Strange Fruit and Speak Low.

Strange Fruit:

Strange Fruit,  the haunting song about lynching in America was first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939.

Strange Fruit is one of the earliest examples of a protest song. It is simple, spare and effective poetry. We must remember that it was written at a time when political protest was not often expressed in music, and still a dangerous thing to do. The three short verses has an unusual and ironic tone and are all the more powerful for it. To take such wonderful scenery and mix it with the brutality of hanging, to speak of lynched men as fruit, to mix up the smell of magnolias with that of burning flesh — this is powerful stuff to this day! We can only imagine the impact of the song when it was released.

Getting the song on record was not easy. Columbia Records, Holiday’s regular label, refused release it. It was Commodore Records, a small outfit run by Milton Gabler that finally released it.

Here is a great documentary about the film that was shown on PBS, it is a must see film:

The film tells a dramatic story of America’s past by using one of the most influential protest songs ever written as its epicenter. The saga brings us face-to-face with the terror of lynching as it spotlights the courage and heroism of those who fought for racial justice when to do so was to risk ostracism and livelihood if white – and death if black. It examines the history of lynching, and the interplay of race, labor, the Left and popular culture that would give rise to the civil rights movement.

Speak Low:

Speak low when you speak, love
Our summer day withers away too soon, too soon
Speak low when you speak, love
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift, we’re swept apart, too soon
Speak low, darling, speak low
Love is a spark, lost in the dark too soon, too soon

“Speak Low” (1943) is a popular song composed by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Ogden Nash. It was introduced by Mary Martin and Kenny Baker in the Broadway musical One Touch of Venus (1943). The 1944 hit single was by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra, with vocal by Billy Leach. The tune is a jazz standard that has been widely recorded. The opening line is a (slight mis)quotation from William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (1600), where it is spoken by Don Pedro.

Other 7 April:
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folk, Music Calendar

Today: Robert Earl Keen is 57

…Here’s Bob Dylan and he is the greatest and when we’re all dead and gone and they’re looking back at us 400 years from now, they can look at Bob and say he was the Shakespeare of songwriters, and I would agree.
~Robert Earl Keen (to American Songwriter – Sept. 2011)

Among the large contingent of talented songwriters who emerged in Texas in the 1980s and ’90s, Robert Earl Keen struck an unusual balance between sensitive story-portraits (“Corpus Christi Bay”) and raucous barroom fun (“That Buckin’ Song”)
~James Manheim (allmusic.com)

Amarillo Highway live at the Ryman:

From Wikipedia:

Born January 11, 1956 (age 57)
Origin Houston, Texas, United States
Genres Country, Texas country, outlaw country, country rock, alternative country, folk, Americana
Occupations Singer, Songwriter
Instruments Acoustic Guitar
Years active 1984–present
Labels Arista Records
Sugar Hill Records
KOCH Records
Lost Highway
Rosetta Records,Inc.
Website RobertEarlKeen.com

Robert Earl Keen, Junior (born January 11, 1956) is an American country and folk guitarist and singer-songwriter from the southern state of Texas. He is popular with fans of various musical genres including traditional country, alternative country, folk, Americana, and college radio. Keen currently resides in Kerrville, Texas, and maintains a ranch in Medina, Texas.

REK

Gringo Honeymoon:

Album of the day:

Best (2006):

REK best

More January 11:

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