Much has been made about Bruce Springsteen‘s new boxed set Tracks II, which includes seven previously unreleased albums recorded throughout his career. And while the box is fascinating and wonderful for all sorts of reasons, there’s only one reason we’d talk about in these pages. In the 83 songs, only one is a cover: Johnny Rivers‘ “Poor Side of Town.”
The cover appears on the Somewhere North of Nashville album, which was recorded in 1995, in some of the same sessions that produced The Ghost of Tom Joad. Though, Springsteen’s version of the song would also have fit quite nicely on Western Stars or the newly released Twilight Hours.
Springsteen slows the song down, removing some of the 1960s Nashville sound that is all over Rivers’ original. (He also cuts way back on the string section, and brought in a pedal steel to play a key role.) With the stripped-down version, and a slower pace, the listener can really spend some time with the lyrics, and Springsteen’s delivery digs into a different vein of pain than Rivers mines. But both versions feature hurt.
It’s going to take some time to fully digest this cache of new material, but this cover is a wonderful addition to Springsteen’s list of successful cover versions.
