10 Bruce Springsteen ‘Tracks II’ Songs You Must Hear

Bruce Springsteen fans and casual listeners alike can be forgiven for balking when his Tracks II: The Lost Albums box set was announced. Here were seven(!) albums’ worth of material he didn’t feel right about releasing when he made them, and now he decided it’s okay to put them out, to fans willing to pay between $300 (for the CDs) and $350 (for the vinyl) to add them to their collections.

Of course, this is Springsteen we’re talking about here—a man whose 50-plus-year career has yielded a corpus of exceedingly high quality. Even though he’s put out a few clunkers here and there, it would stand to reason that even his castoffs and outtakes would be at least a little fun to go through. The first Tracks box set contained some fantastic stuff; why wouldn’t Tracks II?

As it turns out, there is indeed some mighty fine material spread out across the 83 cuts on Tracks II—maybe not three C-notes’ worth, but for the price of a Spotify connection, on a lazy weekend afternoon? Absolutely. Here are ten of those 83 “lost” tracks we really dig, along with the “albums” from which they hail:

“All God’s Children”
From: Faithless

Springsteen covered Tom Waits‘ “Jersey Girl” live, and released a version of it as the B-side of “Cover Me.” On “All God’s Children,” he morphs into Waits, just like Waits morphs into a werewolf on nights when there’s a full moon. The gravel-gargling vocal, boot-stomp percussion, and satanic slide guitar are likely results of Springsteen playing a character (Faithless is supposedly a soundtrack to a movie that was never made), but it’s a character that would be fun to hear more of, should the Boss ever feel like revisiting it, or making an answer record to Waits’ Rain Dogs.

 

Read More: When Bruce Springsteen Opened His Vaults for the First ‘Tracks’ Box

“Dinner at Eight”
From: Twilight Hours

As Springsteen has gotten older, he has taken to exploring the limits of his voice, rolling through soul tunes (good), lilting into falsetto (bad, very bad), and, particularly on 2019’s Western Stars, stretching into a languid croon, set against strings and jazz chords influenced by the likes of Jimmy Webb and Burt Bacharach. The dozen songs from Twilight Hours were recorded in the same sessions as Western Stars, and further mine that aesthetic. “Dinner at Eight” finds Springsteen singing of domestic bliss, albeit from the perspective of having lost it—the stuff of blues or country songs, right? But here the instrumental backdrop and Brill Building melody shimmer, and hearing Springsteen mold his voice into this gorgeous setting is one of the most striking things the Tracks II box has to offer.

 

“Don’t Back Down”
From: L.A. Garage Sessions ’83

Much of the 1983 tracks on the box set seem perfectly placed in the spare, one-man-band approach Springsteen took in recording them—something between the austerity of Nebraska and the over-the-top, stadium-ready tack of Born in the U.S.A. “Don’t Back Down,” though, could definitely use a band to more fully flesh out its sound. Aside from that quibble, it’s just a way-cool early-’80s Bruce Springsteen song—sort of a cross between “I’m Goin’ Down” and “Pink Cadillac,” with an insistent monotone melody in the verses and the occasional drum/vocal breakdown that slides into the chorus. Perhaps some day he’ll dust this one off live and we’ll get to hear it as it should be heard, powered by the E Street Band.

 

“El Jardinero (Upon the Death of Ramona)”
From: Inyo

Sometimes, when confronted with something (or someone) beautiful, the proper thing to do is simply stop and appreciate what’s in front of you. From the bell-clear acoustic guitar picking to the synthesized strings, to the wordless vocal harmonies that close the song, “El Jardinero” is a Springsteen ballad of tremendous depth and breadth, and that’s before you consider the lyrics, which reflect the sorrow over the loss of a child and that sorrow’s expression in the everyday effort to simply move forward. It’s sad, yes, and beautiful. Stop what you’re doing and take it in.

 

“I’m Not Sleeping”
From: Perfect World

Springsteen and Joe Grushecky came up with this chuckle-worthy paean to paranoia 30 years ago, and Grushecky and his House Rockers got to record it first. Springsteen’s take is a lively horn-assisted number with an instantly recognizable Roy Bittan piano contribution.

 

“Janey Don’t You Lose Heart”
From: Somewhere North of Nashville

“Janey Don’t You Lose Heart,” in its original incarnation, was the B-side of the “I’m Goin’ Down” single in 1985, and was one of those songs you couldn’t imagine being recorded and left off an album (Born in the U.S.A., obviously). This new take follows the country-ish thread Springsteen was following on Somewhere North of Nashville, and if anything is even fuller and lovelier than the original. The fiddle and lap steel are exquisite, so much so you don’t mind the absence of the “No, no, no, no” refrain that punctuated every other line in the verses and every single line in the chorus. This is a terrific version of the song, regardless of whether you were around for the original, or are hearing it for the first time.

 

“Rain in the River”
From: Perfect World

Lyrically, “Rain in the River” is a trifle, a seven-line murder tale with an insistent refrain that might grate at your nerves, if you listen to it enough. Musically, it’s a hammer to the skull, with “We Will Rock You” drums boom-boom-thwak-ing as Springsteen howls at his guitar and his guitar tries to talk some sense into him. You gotta turn this one up, loud.

 

“Something in the Well”
From: Streets of Philadelphia Sessions

Much was made about Springsteen’s use of “hip-hop beats” and synthesizers on the Streets of Philadelphia Sessions material in Tracks II, but the results on cuts like “Blind Spot” and “We Fell Down” are less Public Enemy and more Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. He and his producers were actually quite adept at creating more subtle sonics on the ballad material during those sessions. Just listen to the keyboard, viola, and cello behind the vocal on the haunting “Something in the Well.” A soft trill—first on synth, then on guitar—moves in and out of the song as the other stringed instruments blend and recede. There’s a mystery at the core of the song, and the instrumental backdrop deepens it.

 

“Stand On It”
From: Somewhere North of Nashville

Back in the summer of 1986, you might have bought the soundtrack to the Danny DeVito/Bette Midler comedy Ruthless People because it had Billy Joel‘s “Modern Woman” on it, or because it featured a solo Mick Jagger singing the title track. You kept the record, however, because it had this Springsteen B-side (of the “Glory Days” single) sitting on Side 2. This revisited version has some well-placed lap steel and is slowed down half a tick, so Springsteen can enunciate the rapid-fire verses a little more clearly. Bonus points for the Boss imparting some of his best advice: “If you’ve lost control of the situation at hand / Grab a girl and see a rock ‘n’ roll band.”

 

“The Little Things”
From: Streets of Philadelphia Sessions

A cheater’s scene, detailing, for a time, every whisper, every kiss, every undone button. Springsteen’s done this before, rather infamously, on Devils & Dust‘s “Reno” (the “two-hundred straight in, two-fifty up the ass” song), but this time, something’s different. The protagonist knows there’s something missing in his marriage, and he vacillates between remaining true to his vows and filling the void. Ultimately, he gives in, and the scene ends abruptly, leaving the listener to fill in the blanks. It’s like a Raymond Carver story, where we get only what we need, to know where the scene will go and what the narrator’s response is likely to be the next day.