Occasional Albums Thing 051 - Bruce Springsteen “18 Tracks”

Bruce Springsteen has always recorded much, much more material than he has ever released. Tracks would turn up on bootlegs and dodgy tapes passed between fans. Then, in 1998, Springsteen opened his vault and released “Tracks”, a 4-CD, 66 track collection of audition tapes, demo’s and finished recordings, an absolute treasure trove for Springsteen obsessives (like me!). The initial sales of the box set were disappointing, in the record companies view, so they decided to issue a stripped down 18 track version of “Tracks” for the casual Springsteen fan, that is how we come by “18 Tracks”.

Bizarrely (to fans) but almost certainly completely intentionally (this is a record company we’re talking about) “18 Tracks” was made up of 15 songs from the box set plus 3 that were not on there ("The Fever", "Trouble River" and "The Promise”, the the first and last of those included after howls of outrage from the faithful for leaving them off “Tracks” in the first place) thus ensuring that diehard fans had to buy most of it again ! It was also released on vinyl whereas the box set was CD only. 

There are not many artists who could release huge outtakes collections like this and I would actually buy them. Springsteen is one (obviously, here we are), then David Bowie (it’s not really happened to any great extent) and The Jam would be about it. I’m firmly in the camp that outtakes are outtakes and remain largely unreleased for a reason…they weren’t good enough. In almost all cases that remains the case to my ears. I cannot think of a single unreleased David Bowie song I’ve ever heard that made me think he should have put it out at the time, the same goes for The Jam. The same applies to demo versions, they’re purely badly recorded versions of what you later came to know, unreleased for that very reason.

So let’s get the filler out of the way…”Rendezvous” “Where The Bands Are” and particularly “Part Man, Part Monkey” are excrutiating and should have been erased never mind stored away for future use. “Part Man, Part Monkey” in particular is painful, I know I’ve used this analogy before but in the same way I’ve never wanted to hear Bob Marley have a go at Stadium Rock I NEVER wanted to experience Bruce Springsteen attempt (cod) Reggae…and he’s done it twice now. Avoid this and the live version of “Love Of The Common People” at all costs.

Right then, the rest…the album begins with a nice solo acoustic take of "Growin' Up"; “Hearts Of Stone” is a finished article which went on to a new life with Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes; “Pink Cadillac” was actually released as the B-side of “Dancing In the Dark but went on to greater fame when it gave Natalie Cole a top 10 hit in 1988; this demo version of “Born In the USA” is a very different beast to the take that ended up on the album, a “Nebraska” style acoustic Blues dripping with rage; “Brothers Under The Bridge” is a fantastic outtake from “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” sessions, I’m guessing it was simply too similar musically and lyrically to others that made the cut. Finally “The Fever”, a song written in 1971 and played live a lot in the years prior to “Born To Run”. It was even sent out to some radio stations in 1973 and one in particular, in Houston, TX, played it a lot and fans would come to gigs and shout for it. This version was recorded in 1973 and sounds very “Wild and Innocent” if you get the reference. Many a Springsteen diehard loses their mind over this and "The Promise" and while "The Fever" is a nice 'of the time' piece I'm sorry guys I just don't get the fuss about "The Promise" at all. It's "Thunder Road Pt, 2" and can't hold a candle up to that work o' genius.

“18 Tracks” (and also “Tracks”) does however, features a song that to this day leaves me scratching my head as to why it wasn’t released at the time, the “Born In The USA” outtake “My Love Will Not Let You Down” is the song in question. Had it been included on “Born In The USA” instead of, perhaps, “Cover Me”, “I’m On Fire” or “I’m Going Down” the album would not have suffered at all, I might even argue its inclusion makes it a better record. It’s a barnstorming thunderous E Street rocker that was re-instated to the live set for the 1999 Reunion Tour and features on that tours “Live In New York City” document from 2001. In fact since Springsteen began performing “My Love Will Not Let You Down” in 1999 he’s played it live more than twice as many times as “I’m Going Down” which he first performed in 1984 ! We were lucky enough to see him play it in 2016 and it remains a highlight of my Springsteen gig going.

“18 Tracks” isn’t for everyone, heck a whole bunch of it I wish I’d never heard, but this ♥️…

My Love Will Not Let You Down - https://youtu.be/exXiJa-kis4?si=-akmFP5QT9nKbCzF