Bruce Springsteen fans are in for another bonanza of rarities with Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition, which arrives Oct. 17 from Sony Music a week ahead of the film that portrays its creation, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.
The four-disc boxed set is led by a previously unheard electric trio version of “Born in the U.S.A.,” a song that was considered for the stripped-down, solo Nebraska but ultimately left on the cutting room floor. Other long-rumored band recordings of Nebraska material form the basis for the collection, of which Springsteen remarks, “over the years, I’ve been asked about the electric Nebraska, and I always thought the question was ridiculous. Finally, I went back into the vault, and lo and behold, there it was.”
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While plotting out the ambitious, full-band Born in the U.S.A. in 1982, Springsteen holed up in Colts Neck, N.J., with a four-track to cut some demos and decided to leave 10 of them untouched to comprise the separate acoustic album that became Nebraska. “Robert De Niro said once that what he likes about acting is that he gets to step into other people’s shoes without the real-life consequences,” Springsteen told SPIN in 2007 by way of reflecting on his headspace at the time. “Art does allow you to do that, to go right up to the abyss and look in, hopefully without falling in.”
Describing the proto-“Born in the U.S.A” as “kinda like punk rockabilly,” Springsteen notes of the unearthed band versions, “it’s shocking because of how incredibly different it sounded from most of the other electric things I’d ever done.”
Nebtaska ’82: Expanded Edition also features a remastered version of the original album, session outtakes such as “Losin’ Kind,” “Child Bride” and “Downbound Train,” plus songs such as “On the Prowl” and “Gun in Every Home” from a one-off solo studio session.
To complete the package, Springsteen set up shop at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, N.J., in April to record Nebraska in sequence for the first time, the performance of which was captured by director Thom Zimny. “I think in playing these songs again to be filmed, their weight impressed upon me,” says Springsteen. “I’ve written a lot of other narrative records, but there’s just something about that batch of songs on Nebraska that holds some sort of magic.”
Springsteen already released a boxed set of seven previously unheard albums, Tracks II, earlier this summer. SPIN speculated at the time that the electric Nebraska material was being saved for later this year to help promote Deliver Me From Nowhere, which stars The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen and Succession‘s Jeremy Strong as manager Jon Landau.
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