How much of a Springsteen fan is Amy Ray?
Enough that for years, she sang “Racing in the Street” in the studio to warm up but rarely dared to cover it in public out of reverence for the original.
Enough that she actually learned the song from the bootleg of Bruce’s Atlanta ‘78 show and still has to catch herself from singing “cover all the southern states” because that’s the way Bruce sang it that night. (There’s actually a clip on YouTube of her singing it that way in 2009.)
And enough that she proves that there’s an exception to my cover rule: sometimes you don’t have to do it better or do it differently–you just have to love the song.
And watching this Amy Ray Band performance from last spring… there’s no question that Amy loves this song.
In a radio interview last year, Amy zeroed in on a particular line of “Racing in the Street” and placed Bruce’s song in a new context:
https://estreetshuffle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/amyray.mp3
But regardless of whether Amy’s performance above was channeling the personal or the political, the end result is the same: a gorgeous, heartfelt cover of one of Bruce’s finest songs.
