"COVER ME!" he said*. And so they did. In droves. Because underneath it all (and in addition to being one of the most exciting performers on the planet - ever), the Boss is a one of the great songwriters, and he mines both the classic Tin Pan Alley pop tradition as well as all manner of Rock and Folk traditions. Yes, he’s a singer-songwriter, but his songs are more than just vehicles for his own performance. They will work for virtually anybody, in any style. And there are SO MANY great ones. Even his B-sides become hits for other people! And how about the songs that he just give away in the late ‘70s? Like "Because the Night", Patti Smith’s (only) big hit. And "Fire", which he gave to Robert Gordon & Link Wray and which the Pointer Sisters pinched and turned into a worldwide smash. Both of those were bigger hits than Bruce himself had ever scored at the time. He tried to give "Hungry Heart" to the Ramones but they weren’t interested – lucky that, because that’s the one that finally gave Bruce a hit single of his own...
Anyway, there’s a million Springsteen covers out there. A lot of you seemed to enjoy out post featuring Bowie’s version of "Growin’ Up" and "It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City", and Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s rather outrageous "Born To Run" (well some of you didn’t like that one too much…), so here’s some more for you. Some hits, some misses and some no one was expecting. All are good fun. Enjoy! (And let us know if you do enjoy, because there’s plenty more where this came from!)
(*okay, so he said/sung that later on, after most of these covers were recorded. Give us a break already!)
Dave Edmunds – From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)
The Boss gifted this to the legendary Welsh guitarist, who was struggling to follow up his worldwide smash "Girls Talk", in 1982. It’s a ripping rocker in a Chuck Berry style – both Bruce and Dave have done more than their share of Chuck covers over the years – and it scored Dave a minor hit. I can’t help but wonder if Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody took some inspiration from the lyrical gist...
The Beat Farmers - Reason to Believe
Favourites, alongside the likes of the Blasters and Los Lobos (whose Steve Berlin would be their producer), on the West Coast roots rock scene in the mid-80s, San Diego’s Beat Farmers’ 1985 Tales of the New West LP on Rhino stands up well, and is highlighted by this brilliant, rockin’ and boogiefied "Nebraska" cover. Singer Country Dick Montana (assumedly they were fans of Bruce’s pals the Dictators too… ) sadly died only 10 years later at the age of 40, but he did so on stage, with his boots on, rock’n’and rolling to his last breath. Mandolin and washboard player Richard Banke would later change his name to Skid Roper and achieve infamy in a duo with Mojo Nixon.
Greg Kihn Band - For You
San Fran folkie-turned Tom Pretty-style-pop-rocker Kihn was a fairly early Springsteen coverer. In ‘77, he took Bruce’s wonderfully meandering ballad "For You", straightened it out and made a wonderful folk-rock pop song out of it, just like the Byrds did with those Dylan songs early on.
Greg Kihn Band - Rendezvous
The Boss obviously dug Kihn’s "For You", because shortly thereafter he gifted him "Rendezvous", a fantastic pop song first written and recorded in the lead up to "Darkness on the Edge of Town". (That version finally appeared on The Promise; previously a live version – it was a Springsteen fan fave live around ’77-78 – had appeared on Tracks.) The tune was clearly written while Springsteen was listening to the Raspberries (he admitted to their influence in liner notes he wrote for a live Raspberries album in 2005) and Kihn & ko kranked up the Rickenbackers and made a stone classic power popper out of it – one that would have made the Raspberries proud. Unbelievably it wasn’t a hit, but Greg did score a couple of years later with his own "The Break Up Song".
The Knack – Don’t Look Back
Around the same time Bruce gave Greg "Rendezvous", he gave LA’s fledgling power poppers The Knack another "Darkness" outtake, "Don’t Look Back". In their hands it became… another outtake. They recorded it for their smash debut "Get The Knack" but left it off. It’s one of Springsteen’s great nearly-lost rockers, and the Knack did a bang up job of it (check out the late Bruce Gary’s powerhouse drumming!). The fact they could do a completely faithful version yet manage to sound completely like themselves at the same time reveals how in tune Springsteen was with punk, new wave and power pop around this time.
Robert Gordon - Fire
Pointer Sisters - Fire
Robert Gordon first appeared with early CBCG’s punks Tuff Darts, but he was a natural born rocker at heart and soon hit out solo with legendary ‘50s axeman Link Wray by his side. With veteran producer Richard Gottehrer leading the way, the pair cut a couple of killer albums in ’77 and ’78 that brilliantly updated the sounds of Wray’s contemporaries like Gene Vincent and Elvis. Bruce’s song "Fire" appeared on the second one. He’d originally sent it to Elvis, who promptly passed away, but the New Quiff in Town and the older master on guitar rocked it up beautifully. Richard & Link’s version failed to hit but it got attention; enough attention that the soul-pop Pointer Sisters grabbed the tune and turned it into a worldwide smash months later.
Eddie & The Hot Rods - The Ties That Bind
"The Ties That Band" kick-started The River double LP in fine style with ringing 12-string guitar and a cracking beat. Eddie & The Hot Rods, who were one fo the first bands in the UK to wear the ‘punk’ mantle in the mid-70s before they were blown away by the Sex Pistols, had covered both Bob Seger and the J Geils Band early in their career, so this cover, late in the original band’s lifespan, probably should not have come as a great surprise. And indeed, it’s pretty cool version once you get past the drummer tuning up at the start. I’d love to hear Bruce cover the Hot Rods classic "Do Anything You Wanna Do" some day!
Natalie Cole - Pink Cadillac
Carl Perkins - Pink Cadillac
Jerry Lee Lewis - Pink Cadillac
Bruce couldn’t even find a place for this tune on "Born in the USA" – his rockin’ version showed up on the B-side of "Dancing In The Dark". But Natalie Cole’s producer knew a hit and Natalie had her first Top 10 hit in ten years with it in 1988. Oddly enough Bruce had vetoed a Bette Middler cover of the song back in ’83, on the grounds that it wasn’t gender-appropriate. Go figure. In 1992, he would have had no qualms when original ‘50s rocker Carl Perkins recorded it, and then, in 2006, Bruce joined the Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis, for a kick ass version on Jerry Lee’s great duets album Last Man Standing. Dig the cool animated clip of that here.
Johnny Cash - Highway Patrolman
Bruce’s stripped back Nebraska provided a wealth of material for artists who could simply rearrange a song by adding a full band. Johnny Cash probably would’ve been better off keeping it lean when he did "Johnny 99" on his 1983 album of the same name, but on the same album he fairly well nailed a version of another Nebraska track "Highway Patrolman", at the same timing anticipating his epochal work with Rick Rubin by over a decade. Bruce, who’d been finding inspiration in classic early country at this point, must’ve been gratified to have a such a giant of the field cover his material.
Emmylou Harris - Racing in the Street
Another classic country artist drawn to the truth, soul and beauty in Springsteen’s songwriting. Here Emmylou nails the song that is many people’s favourite song off "Darkness On The Edge of Town" – what I’d give to hear her do a whole album of Springsteen songs.
The Band - Atlantic City
Another great Nebraska cover. Bruce has often rocked this one up himself, and The Band, with Levon Helm on mandolin and behind the mic on their 1993 comeback album Jericho, absolutely nailed it on. Again, Bruce was no doubt thrilled and honoured – The Band, with their unique blend of roots music and their focus on the minutiae of Americana in the late ‘60s and 70s, had no doubt inspired the Boss immensely in the early days.
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - Light of Day
Joan recorded this for the 1987 Paul Schrader-written and directed film of the same name that she starred in, alongside that other great rocker (joking!) Michael J Fox. (Michael McKean AKA Lenny of Lenny & Squiggy and David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap also featured. In the movie he, MJ and Joanie are members of a bar band - the Barbusters – in search of a break). It’s a cool rock-band-coming-of-age film, the song is a great rocker, and Joan handles it like she handles so many other peoples’ songs – brilliantly.
The Hollies - Sandy
One of the earliest Springsteen covers released (yep earlier than Manfred Mann Earth Band’s "Blinded by Light"), Bruce must’ve been pretty chuffed by this cover of "Sandy" - originally titled "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" when it first appeared on his second album in ‘73) - in 1975. The Hollies of course were one of the British Invasion bands that 10 years earlier the young Boss would’ve been cutting his teeth on… Australia’s own Air Supply also recorded "Sandy" – no doubt based on the Hollies’ version - but we won’t go there just yet…
Diesel - Born to Run
The most recent, and probably most faithful cover here (which, given how iconic the song is, makes it the possibly most ambitious), from comes Australia’s own Diesel. No stranger to the occasional Bruce support spot, young Johnny completely vindicates himself with a cover that plays it straight yet lifts itself out of the incomparable soup of the original to sound like… Diesel! Give it a try – we think you’ll like it.
That’s it for now. Like we said at the top, if you’d like to hear more covers of Bruce, just let us know. There’s plenty more great ones out there, and we’re more than happy to collect some more….
- DL
