Recycled melange or original organ donor? Either way, “American Beauty” ranks among the best songs of Bruce’s Magic period.
Author:
Ken Rosen (2080)
KT Tunstall and the Buena Vista Social Club bring out the sexy in their 2009 cover of “Because the Night.”
Less than three months after it exploded onto the American rock scene, Bruce’s high school band opened their show with a passionate cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” Listen to a 17-year-old Bruce Springsteen tear it up inside.
The backstory is odd, but the performance is terrific: watch Bruce and Wolfgang Niedecken deliver a bilingual cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” in a German cafe in 1995.
It won Bruce a Grammy he didn’t even know he was nominated for. It’s full of hidden callbacks to “Thunder Road” and echoes of “Born to Run.” It’s my favorite 21st-century Springsteen song, and it mystifies Bono with its relative obscurity. Listen to “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” like you’ve never heard it before inside.
One of the best performances from Elvis Costello’s Springsteen episode of Spectacle was never aired–but you can listen to that intense performance of “Point Blank” inside.
Shortly after Link Wray’s death in 2005, Bruce paid homage by opening the final two shows of the Devils & Dust Tour with a bristling, menacing cover of Wray’s signature song, “Rumble.”
The E Street Band may have been on hiatus, but relationships endured. From 1991, here’s Nils and Bruce together again on Nils’ sweet love song, “Valentine.”
Indie-folk band Hem gave us a wonderful adaptation of “Valentine’s Day” on their 2002 EP of cover songs. Take a listen inside.
Bruce follows in the footsteps of Woody Guthrie, recasting “I Ain’t Got No Home” for modern times. Listen to Bruce’s studio recording and watch the official video inside.