It takes guts to cover Bruce Springsteen’s “Jungleland.” It takes even more guts to do so with nothing more than an acoustic guitar and a bass to accompany you.
Patty Griffin has nothing if not guts.
Earlier this year in Philadelphia, on her first U.S. tour since defeating breast cancer, she stepped up to the microphone and opened her show with a most unexpected song choice. There are a few videos floating around of it, but the fact that they all seem to miss the opening bars of the introduction show just how off-guard the audience must have been caught.
Patty’s cover is brave, but more than that: it’s beautiful, capturing the essence of Bruce’s street war ballad in quiet contemplation. Even the guitar solo works, and in the moments leading up to it, I couldn’t imagine how it possibly would.
As far as I know, Patty only performed “Jungleland” one other time, in New York just two days later. That’s too bad–this is one cover I’d very much like to hear live.
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