Is it possible that “The Wish” (released on Tracks) actually dates to the 1995 “Somewhere North of Nashville” sessions?
I’ve long believed that it could’ve been from the fabled 1986/87 “Nashville” sessions. Where Bruce was recording (or planned to) work with a band of Nashville session players. However, word got out and Bruce pulled the plug. It is unknown what, if anything, was recorded during those sessions. Brucebase lists only a harmonica part which was eventually overdubbed onto “Spare Parts”. However, my theory has been that “The Wish” was at least attempted during those sessions.
Although I’ve been reconsidering that, and I now think the version we have is actually from the 1995 “Daylight”/”Somewhere North of Nashville” sessions.
But first, to briefly cover the songs known history.
A Brief History
“The Wish” was recorded on February 22, 1987 at Thrill Hill Productions in Rumson, NJ (Bruce’s home studio). This would’ve been early in the sessions for what would become Tunnel of Love
Brucebase lists 2 known takes:
V1: Uncirculating
V2: V1 with drums added by frequent collaborator Gary Mallaber years later
Bruce is credited with all instruments (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, tambourine, maracas). These early sessions involved him playing everything, with the eventual plan to bring the E Street Band in. Much like Nebraska six years prior. But unlike Nebraska, they’d end up playing various parts on the final album, although in a reduced capacity.
Aside from those takes, no further work is known to have been undertaken on “The Wish”. It was dropped and almost entirely forgotten about until a one-off at the second Christic show in 1990, and then again until a dozen or so appearances during the Joad tour in 1996-97.
However, listening to the version released on Tracks, it raises a number of questions. If Bruce played every instrument solo, with the only other musician adding a drum overdub years after the fact, then who is he talking to with his directions (“to the right now”, “alright now!”)? And where does the pedal steel and organ come from? If Bruce played these, why is he not credited with those parts? If it was someone else playing them, then who was it? and when were these recorded?
I think I have an answer…
Somewhere North of Nashville Sessions
These sessions took place in May/June 1995. Bruce called together some old friends and some new players for a series of sessions at his Beverly Hills home/studio. These were:
- Garry Tallent: bass
- Danny Federici: keyboards
- Patti Scialfa: backing vocals
- Soozie Tyrell: violin
And among those new included:
- Gary Mallaber: drums
- Marty Rifkin: pedal steel
Gary had played with Van Morrison and Steve Miller, and also played on most of Bruce’s “Lucky Town” in 1991. As for Marty, per the Tracks II: The Lost Albums liner notes:
He wanted a pedal-steel guitar player added to the mix, and Marty Rifkin was drafted, having recently contributed to Tom Petty’s solo album Wildflowers. Springsteen himself handled the remaining guitar duties.
Bruce is not known to have ever played pedal steel guitar, always relying on others to play it (Marty Rifkin, Nils Lofgren, etc.) I have found no evidence to suggest that Bruce plays (or even knows how to play) pedal steel guitar. If we go with the accepted lineup, and Bruce played it himself, it would mark the only known occasion of it happening (and he should do it more).
These sessions were ultimately to record songs for Bruce’s next album The Ghost of Tom Joad, which were darker and moodier. Perhaps in an effort to lighten the mood, he also wrote some more uptempo “country” material. These songs would be tackled during the daytime, with the Joad stuff being in the afternoon/evening.
In addition to the new material (“Silver Mountain”, “Repo Man”, “Tiger Rose”) Some older unreleased songs were given another go (“Stand On It” and “Janey Don’t You Lose Heart”, both from BITUSA). It is at this time that I think Bruce remembered his ode to his mother, and tried it out with this new band.
Personally, I think it fits. You have a collection of country-ish up-tempo material, and a number of revisited outtakes given new life. Also, the band lineup fits much closer with the released track compared to the belief that it was a fully solo production.
The Song
With this all in mind, it’s time to consider (or reconsider) The Wish.
The song is an uptempo country-flavored number. Present is a pedal steel, organ, synthesizer, bass, drums, vocals, tambourine, acoustic guitar and electric guitar (12 string?). While it is definitely possible that Bruce played all of these parts sans drums, layering them on top of one another via overdubs, I simply don’t think this is the case.
While Bruce is capable of playing all of these instruments with the exception of pedal steel (that we know of). The final track doesn’t sound like one that was built up in that manner. Instead, it sounds more like a live band cutting the track “in flight”, with possibly some overdubs added in after the fact. It gels in a way that a track built via overdubs wouldn’t.
Not to mention that you have Bruce shouting out directions to someone:
Woo!
Alright Now! You’re lookin good!
To the right now!
Yeah, to the left!
Alright, keep on dancing now! Keep on dancing!
Aw one more time around now!
Would he be shouting all this if he was the only one in the room? I don’t think so.
There are also a few other oddities that I think definitively place this track at these 1995 band sessions:
- The vocal doesn’t sound 100% like Tunnel-era Bruce, but rather closer to that present on Somewhere North of Nashville. More “Repo Man” than “Tougher Than The Rest”.
- The bass part is very active. While Bruce is a competent bass player, his parts that have made the final cut are usually much more simple. Tracks like “Goin Cali’” and “Loose Change” are simple, and essentially just accompaniment. Whereas the “Wish” bass part sounds much more like Garry Tallent than it does Bruce.
- The sheer number of instruments present. Stuff from Tunnel didn’t have this much on each track. Minimum 9 instruments, plus lead and backing vocals.
With all this, only one thing remains unclear: Where is the synth from?
This, I believe, is a holdover from the original 1987 recording. Perhaps the only part to survive into this new arrangement. I’d also guess that the electric guitar might also be from ‘87 as well. As it has that sort of jangly sound present on Tougher Than The Rest.
My theory is that Bruce went back to this song, kept the parts he liked, and recorded a new base track with the band called together for Joad/SNN. This base track was married to the existing instruments. This might’ve been done well after the fact, as the synth doesn’t really fit with the feel of the other songs cut during the SNN sessions. Perhaps as a half measure to make the song work in Bruce’s mind? It’s possible that the two takes were married together in 1998 when working on Tracks, however that is just a guess.
Conclusion
With all that said, I believe that version of “The Wish” released on Tracks is a combination of parts from both 1987 and 1995. Between the presence of the band, Bruce’s vocal, as well as the lineup for both SNN and The Wish sharing a drummer.
My proposed lineup for “The Wish” is as follows:
Bruce Springsteen: vocals, acoustic and electric guitar*, synthesizer*, tambourine
Garry Tallent: bass
Danny Federici: organ
Gary Mallaber: drums
Marty Rifkin: pedal steel guitar
* recorded in 1987
And I believe the history of the track is like so:
Bruce records a base track and vocals in February 1987. This includes electric guitar, synths, and vocals. Either not feeling it, or finding other material, the song is dropped. Later in 1995, when looking for songs that might fit this new sound, he rediscovers The Wish, and tries it out. Nothing from this session ended up released at the time, so it continued to sit around. The song making a comeback of sorts on the Joad tour confirms he had the song on his mind around this time.
Later, in 1998 when prepping Tracks, he again finds “The Wish”. Liking the song enough to include on Tracks, and liking both versions of it, he marries the two together. Country pedal steel and computerized synths co-existing in what could be called harmony.
One last tidbit is that Gary Mallaber isn’t known to have entered Bruce’s orbit until late 1991 when he played on Lucky Town. This further cements that the song was finished well after the Tunnel sessions.
I’d like to finish by saying this is all basically speculation. What I’ve presented is my case for a reconsideration of the song and it’s history. There is nothing official to back any of this up, but there isn’t anything to disprove it either, which works in my favor. This era of Bruce is very much undocumented, so the exact session history for this song may never be publicly known.
All we have to go off of is the music.