Bruce Springsteen's Tracks

Album cover of 'Tracks,' which contains songs recorded between 1972-1998

Bruce Springsteen just announced 'Tracks 2: The Lost Albums', which is going to be comprised of a bunch of unreleased albums from between 1983-2018 and will be released in June of this year. These albums range from an unmade film soundtrack to the Streets of Philadelphia sessions.

It's been 27 years since the first 'Tracks' was released. Containing 66 out of "almost 400 songs" from Springsteen's vault as of 1998, Tracks covers the era of Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, Born in the USA, and more. Most songs are from those album's recording sessions or early versions of other songs, like the Born in the USA outtake from Nebraska, though the 'Electric Nebraska' sessions are still unseen (Maybe they'll release with the Nebraska movie).

So, I'm going to pick a few songs from Tracks (the first one) that I find interesting because there is a bunch here that's very interesting.

Iceman: Darkness on the Edge of Town outtake

There are a few lyrics that got transplanted to 'Badlands' off the same album.

Living on the Edge of the World: The River Outtake

This one is really cool to me because it reminds me of a lot of early 2000s pop-rock songs, but very quintessentially Springsteen; it evolved into 'Open All Night' on the Nebraska album.

Born in the USA (Demo Version): Nebraska Outtake

A stripped back version of the one we get on the BitUSA album, has a more 'warning' tone than the official version. Better than any 'stripped back' cover I've ever heard.

Mary Queen of Arkansas (Demo Version): Columbia Records Audition

This one is more Folk leaning, was first recorded as an audition for Columbia Records, an official version is on the Greetings from Asbury Pary, N.J. album.