In 1998 a quadruple album of 66 songs called ‘Tracks’ was published, which collected unpublished by Bruce Springsteen, themes discarded between 1972 and 1995. This week the bet with ‘Tracks II: The Lost Albums’ is redoubled. Up to 7 thematic albums discarded by the BOSS at different points between 1983 and 2018. 83 tracks. Almost 5 hours of music.
Springsteen has revealed that some of those lost albums loved them or enjoyed them a lot at the time, but that they did not seem “essential” or did not correspond to the narrative that the artist wanted to communicate in different points of his career. “I have always published my albums very carefully, making sure that the narratives I wanted to give were overlapping.”
‘The Garage Sessions’ 83′ is an album with sessions between two important albums for the artist as’ Nebraska ‘and’ Born in the USA ‘. ‘Streets of Philadelphia Sessions’ contains recordings of the Oscar del Boss (1993), with issues that could have been the B face of ‘Streets of Philadelphoa’, such as ‘Blind Spot’; and others more disparate.
‘Faithless’, recorded between 2005 and 2006, wanted to be a soundtrack of a spiritual western that in the end did not occur. ‘Somowhere North of Nashville’ is the contemporary of ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ (1995). ‘Twilight Hours’ was recorded in two parts, between 2010-2011 and 2017-2018. And ‘Perfect World’ includes recordings from 1994 to 2011.
We are going to stop especially in ‘Inyo’, an record recorded during the ‘Ghost of Tom Joad’ tour. In this album made between 1995 and 1997 the Boss approached the sound of southern California, already very close to Mexico. He had a mariachis band, taking advantage of the fact that ‘The Mexican Corrido was being read: Feminist Analysis’ and composed a series of songs that receive such graphic titles as ‘Adelita’, ‘The Aztec dance’, ‘The gardener’ or ‘Ciudad Juarez’.
We choose as a song of the day ‘The Lost Charro’, which has not even been the single selected from this album (merit that has fallen to ‘Adelita’), but it is one of the most dazzling. Almost close to “Yodelling,” the Boss is here a kind of Roy Orbison willing to sing about his own funeral, addressing his godmother: “When I die, make a jug of my mud, and when you are thirsty, drink from it.”
In ‘The Lost Charro’ Bruce Springsteen is also a “rider” with problems to handle their strings, one that entertains observing orange and plums. The registry feels like a glove, in an album that is contemporary of the first Calexico, but that today sounds current and pertinent, given the importance that Mexican popular music has taken in international pop. 20 years before everyone talked about the runs, he was already reading about runs … from a feminist perspective.
There is a bit of delirium in the criticism of ‘Tracks II’, placing, not one of these 7 albums, but all, as the best Bruce Springsteen has done in his life (97/100 in Metacritic). Skinny favor these praise to the criteria of the Boss during the last 30 years, but it is true that it is surprising that such good songs have remained in an hidden drawer for so much time. Does anyone give more? Yes: himself. ‘Tracks III’ will see the light in the coming years, with more unpublished themes, this time loose, without forming such specific albums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biwz1rxso-w
