FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T HEARD OF SPRINGSTEEN …
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN “CHAPTER AND VERSE” (SONY)
What’s that, you’ve never heard of this Springsteen fellow? Well, here’s a handy new record full of undiscovered gems like “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Badlands,” “The Rising” and “Born to Run.”
On the off chance you already own 20 Springsteen records, including box set reissues of his most popular albums, then you might be curious to hear the five unreleased songs here on this audio companion to the icon’s new autobiography, all predating the first E Street Band album, 1973’s “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.”
Springsteen’s first real band was the Castiles, formed when he was 17 years old in 1966; here we have an original and a Willie Dixon cover. There’s a reason Springsteen has never put out this material until now: it’s rough, incredibly poorly recorded, and really only makes sense if you’re reading his book. That said, it’s a fascinating audio equivalent baby photo, in which one can see many elements of the adult performer: the confident vocals, the guitar chops, the tight band that sounds like they spend every waking hour rehearsing. It’s a raw rock quartet where keyboards play a dominant role. Springsteen’s guitar leads show a guy who knows his country licks and his way around every scale.
The same is true, of course, of Steel Mill, which featured future E Streeters Danny Federici on organ and Vini Lopez on drums, and whose sole song here is very much a precursor to the first two Springsteen albums—although with a heavier debt to Deep Purple or Blue Cheer than one might expect. The unreleased E Street songs are of no consequence, and the demo version of “Growin’ Up” that got bumped off the debut is here (it had been previously released on the oddities box set “Tracks”).
After that, “Chapter and Verse” offers obvious hits and signposts from the rest of Springsteen’s career. Nothing is particularly illuminating, unless you’re the kind of person who doesn’t listen to classic rock radio and haven’t actually sat down and listened to “Born to Run” in years — well, it’s astounding, really. (Newsflash! Ubiquitous classic song is actually amazing!) Especially when you’ve just witnessed the artist’s development from boy to man in the space of the five preceding tracks. Also not particularly surprising: the “Human Touch”/”Lucky Town” era was truly, truly awful, the one and only time Springsteen has ever sounded completely lost.
The album concludes with the title track from 2012’s “Wrecking Ball,” an epic song to rival his greatest work, a song that’s often overlooked because . . . well, because no one expects Bruce Springsteen to write great songs anymore. Their loss. (See also: 2007’s “Magic” album.)
No Springsteen fan capable of assembling their own playlist needs this album. Buy the book, stream the rarities.
Stream: “Baby I,” “You Can’t Judge a Book By the Cover,” “He’s Guilty (The Judge Song)”
JENNY WHITELEY “THE ORIGINAL JENNY WHITELEY” (BLACK HEN)
Jenny Whiteley was born into a family that is Ontario folk music royalty: father Chris, uncle Ken, brothers Dan and Jesse, and cousin Ben. She grew up at folk and bluegrass festivals, and her first professional gig was at age eight. Here, she revisits traditional songs she played with her elders and her peers earlier in her career, as well as three new songs and a cover of Toronto songwriter Chris Coole. That song, “$100,” is about the near-impossibility of being a working musician when “people don’t pay for music anymore.”
It has all the hallmarks of a modern standard, and the more people who cover it the better — though it’s hard to imagine someone bettering Whiteley’s version. Sam Allison’s bare-bones production and arrangements are pitchperfect, particularly on the bass harmonica and whistling choir on “In the Pines.” Fans of Sarah Harmer’s acoustic recordings will find plenty to love here, as will anyone who didn’t get enough finger-pickin’ on the festival circuit this year. Recorded at the home studio of Hugh Christopher Brown on Wolfe Island, outside Kingston, “The Original” sounds like the best front porch concert you never heard this summer.
Stream: “$100,” “Banjo Girl,” “Higher Learning”