Taking the back roads

The new collection of dozens of unreleased Bruce Springsteen songs from across his career explained in five tracks.

- GRAHAM REID

In 1998, Bruce Springsteen released Tracks, a box set of 66 songs, many of them previously unreleased, others interesting demos or rare B-sides. Now comes Tracks II: The Lost Albums, an even more expansive collection of 83 songs (74 previously unheard) from albums he completed between 1983 and 2018, but never released. Tracks II offers something like an alternative history, so we highlight five songs from the different periods collected chronologically on the seven CD/seven album box set, also available digitally.

FUGITIVE’S DREAM from the LA Garage Sessions ’83

The 18 demos recorded between Nebraska and Born in the USA find Springsteen exploring Buddy Holly/Everly Brothers rockabilly (Little Girl Like You, Seven Tears), country (Jim Deer, County Fair) and different versions of the autobiographically reflective My Hometown and the Viet-vet narrative Shut Out the Light.

This eerie piece has a man confronted by an unstated secret from his past that eats away at him. He flees his wife and family, haunted by something unexplained and perhaps inexplicable. There are two versions, this is the first.