The Torrents of Springsteen

April 3, 2025 11:55 AM

Bruce Springsteen is set to release over 80 new songs this summer with his newly announced “Tracks II: The Lost Albums” collection. Planned for release on June 27, the seven full-length albums will include songs by The Boss that have never been heard. The songs span Springsteen’s decades-long career and were written between 1983 and 2018. First single is: Rain in the River
posted by chavenet (29 comments total)

It’s been 3 years since Springsteen sold his life’s work to Sony for half a billion dollars.

it doesn’t seem like Sony has done that much to try monetizing it.
posted by Lemkin at 12:32 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]

Born in the E.U. by Rome (Jerome Reuter)

About political problems within Europe, primarily the far right and euroskeptics, but seemingly Russian expansion too. Reuter was singing charity concerts in Ukraine at least a year before many other acts. Also Live in Kyiv 2023 is good.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:55 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]

Seven albums! “'The Lost Albums' were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released,” said Springsteen. Who does that? (Apart from Prince, I suppose... but seven whole albums?)

As a Gen-Xer I grew up hearing Bruce like the rest of us, but never really got into him properly... until I became obsessed with Western Stars the year before Covid, and then burrowed back through his entire discography. If you haven't got around to that one, give it a try.
posted by rory at 12:56 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]

Lemkin: "It’s been 3 years since Springsteen sold his life’s work to Sony for half a billion dollars.

it doesn’t seem like Sony has done that much to try monetizing it."

But now you're sad, your mama's mad
And your papa says he knows that I don't have any money
Oh, your papa says he knows that I don't have any money
Oh, so your daddy says he knows that I don't have any money
Well, tell him this is his last chance to get his daughter in a fine romance
Because a record company, Rosie, just gave me a big advance
posted by chavenet at 12:58 PM on April 3 [13 favorites]

83 songs, damn. That's like a whole Springsteen concert.
posted by Chocolate Sandwich at 1:08 PM on April 3 [17 favorites]

pass
posted by Billiken at 1:19 PM on April 3 [2 favorites]

Literally right before I saw this post, I was corresponding with my music student son about arrangements of classic Springsteen songs. So, yeah... good thing this is made (!) in the USA and has no tariffs because I will be spending whatever remains of my disposable income on it.
posted by martin q blank at 1:54 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]

Is Bruce Springsteen a billionaire, or not?

If he is, he joins three other performer billionaires (Jay-Z, Swift and Rihanna). Certainly, Springsteen could be the billionaire with the most labor-intensive career over the last 50 years.
posted by JDC8 at 1:56 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]

Still mad that Larry gave him COVID
posted by stevil at 2:05 PM on April 3 [2 favorites]

Please no. And I'm a fan.
posted by Modest House at 2:43 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]

Taylor Swift is regarded as "the first billionaire with music as the primary source of income", seemingly quite hard working too. Jay-Z and Rihanna gained most of their money from non-music buisness ventures.

If Bruce Springsteen were a billionaire then maybe he'd be the second, or maybe that's McCartney or Madonna or someone. I'd anyways take Springsteen's word against Forbes that he's not a billionaire.

Jason Isbell might appeal to Bruce Springsteen fans: 24 Frames, If We Were Vampires, Live Oak, Never Gonna Change (Drive-By Truckers)
posted by jeffburdges at 2:53 PM on April 3 [4 favorites]

Apart from Prince, I suppose...

Neil Young was shelving albums for decades because he felt like it before Prince's voice broke.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 3:04 PM on April 3 [7 favorites]

When it Springsteens, it pours.
posted by y2karl at 3:33 PM on April 3 [4 favorites]

Oh man. I am a huge Springsteen fan... right up until 'Tunnel of Love'. I've hardly listened to anything he's done since then. Which says something about my tastes, sure, but also, his stuff just hasn't been that good since then. But I'll stand on Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and declaim that Springsteen's run of 7 albums from 'The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle' to 'Tunnel of Love' is the strongest 7 run album streak of anyone in rock music.

All of which is to say this news doesn't especially excite me.

To make up for such negativity, here are 5 live recordings from 1972 and 1973:

Bruce Springsteen Live 1972 at The Gaslight Club - Henry Boy
Bruce Springsteen Live 1972- The Gaslight Club- Growin' Up
Bruce Springsteen - Thundercrack (Live at the Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles, 1973)
Bruce Springsteen - Spirit In the Night (Live at the Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles, 1973)
Wild Billy's Circus Story (Live at the Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles, 1973)
posted by maupuia at 4:21 PM on April 3 [5 favorites]

> Seven albums! “'The Lost Albums' were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released,” said Springsteen. Who does that? (Apart from Prince, I suppose... but seven whole albums?)

It happens more often than you might think.
posted by at by at 4:58 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]

Have to agree with maupula. For me Bruce peaked with the Philly Main Point show on 2/5/75. You get Suki Lahav on violin, rare covers, and that 30+-minute run of Jungleland, Kitty's Back, NYC Serenade.

If I do a history-free search of "2/5/75 show" this is what I get. Bruce owns that date, just like the Dead own 5/8/77 and Phish 11/17/97.
posted by morspin at 5:58 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]

It happens more often than you might think.

Sure, there are many fine examples of lost albums: Get Back, Smile, Lifehouse, the list is long. A fair few artists might have one or two. But seven is a lot for an artist as significant as Springsteen.

I wasn't suggesting it's some sort of problem; more something to marvel at. Would I listen to seven lost Springsteen albums? Absolutely. When I got into Western Stars, I checked out over a dozen of his albums I'd never heard before (I'd already heard the two Borns). Listening to another seven wouldn't be a hardship. Focus on one a week to do each of them justice and you'd be done in a couple of months.
posted by rory at 6:25 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]

Bruce Springsteen Live 1972- The Gaslight Club- Growin' Up

Back when he was being hyped as “the new Dylan” - usually a kiss of death.
posted by Lemkin at 7:26 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]

It’s been 3 years since Springsteen sold his life’s work to Sony for half a billion dollars.

So is the Tracks II release Springsteen's idea or Sony's?
posted by Paul Slade at 1:08 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

This BBC piece has a bit more about the specific albums, and I'm especially keen to hear "the country-leaning Somewhere North of Nashville, cut in May 1995; and Twilight Hours, an orchestrated pop album that was written and recorded in the same period as ... Western Stars". Plus the "Streets of Philadelphia"-era album. A whole album like that? Yes, please.
posted by rory at 3:56 AM on April 4 [2 favorites]

Jason Isbell might appeal to Bruce Springsteen fans

The new album is quite good.
posted by Ayn Marx at 4:24 AM on April 4 [3 favorites]

FWIW, One of the best shows I've ever seen was The Seeger Sessions Band @ Garden State Arts Center June 25, 2006.
posted by mikelieman at 4:30 AM on April 4 [4 favorites]

I like Springsteen when I can understand what he's saying, not so much when he's mumbling (which is to say, a lot of early stuff and not a whole hell of a lot of later stuff). The lyrics are almost always fire, the music is almost always worth the listen, but I prefer to listen without the album insert in front of me.
I am sad that the sample track from this release is in the latter camp, but will keep an eye out for the rest to drip into YouTube.
Glad morspin linked that concert, that's a fantastic listen.
posted by ngaiotonga at 4:36 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

> A fair few artists might have one or two. But seven is a lot for an artist as significant as Springsteen.

I won't indignantly insist that people read the link, because it goes on for very long. There are a few artists mentioned that are rumored or publicly known to have more than just one or two albums unreleased: The The, Beck, The New Radicals, and Q-Tip. This doesn't include the ones who have piles and piles of songs (eg, Peter Gabriel) that were recorded for the possibility of release but never sequenced on an album.
posted by at by at 5:26 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

I just realized that the post title is a Hemingway joke, not a reference to the music’s distribution method.

Well played, sir.
posted by Lemkin at 6:13 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

The The, Beck, The New Radicals, and Q-Tip

Yes, I read it, or at least the bits about artists I know. Much as I love The The and Beck, I don't put them on the same superstar level as Springsteen and Prince. It was the notion that an artist that huge has whole discographies' worth of fully realised yet unreleased studio albums (so, not unfinished ones like Pink Floyd's Household Objects, and not live albums) that I found so striking. There can't be that many other examples on their level of superstardom.

I would happily listen to the contents of Matt Johnson's and Beck Hansen's vaults as well, and a bunch of other lost albums in your link.
posted by rory at 8:20 AM on April 4

I like Springsteen's solo albums (Nebraska, Tom Joad etc), but not the E. Street Band stuff. Is there anything in the Tracks II albums for me?
posted by Paul Slade at 11:18 AM on April 4

Yeah I mean this box deliberately skips over the one lost Bruce album that actually has a legend around it and fans have been clamoring for for decades, the full-band version of the Nebraska material aka "Electric Nebraska"
posted by anazgnos at 11:44 AM on April 4

Tougher Than the Rest cover by Emmylou Harris
posted by jeffburdges at 4:18 PM on April 5