http://brucebase.wikidot.com/stats:letter-to-you-studio-sessions
This has come up on both BTX and our old home... the above link is to Brucebase for the Letter To You sessions and contains some interesting info. I'm not sure where / how Brucebase gets this information, but there is some intriguing stuff here.
Namely, One Minute You're Here having been demoed back in 2004. Rainmaker originally demoed / recorded in 2003. And, most interestingly, Burnin Train originally being worked on in 1993.
So on those other boards, there is a lot of negative discussion about what this means. If you haven't read it, you can probably guess... consternation that Bruce asserting he wrote a whole album on a fan provided guitar when he actually only wrote 6 songs maybe, Bruce being washed up as a writer as the last three albums (HH, Western Stars, LTY) all have large parts written years ago rather than contemporaneously. Yada yada yada.
My question is, do folks here care that unheard newly released Bruce music is not necessarily 'new' in the sense that Bruce specifically wrote it all in the months preceding it's release? Because I certainly don't. I have no issue with Bruce releasing decades old music as part of a new project. If he's releasing it, he believes in it. If he believes in it, based on the track record so far I'm most likely going to find something good in some or all of it. Knowing a song is decades old has no impact on how my ears hear it nor how my brain and heart react to it.
I get some fans want to hear where Bruce is 'now', what he thinks about the world (within himself and outside himself) 'now'. But I don't think that necessarily has to be through newly composed music. It's entirely possible something he wrote 10 or 15 years ago may suddenly make more sense to him today than back when he wrote it.
I also get fans being concerned (or at least pointing out) that the well of new inspiration may be drying, Bruce as a writer is now a shadow prolifically to what he was. Again, I don't really mind. If anything, it makes sense. I don't know how a musical artist in any format works... should they have an endless well of lyrics, riffs, melodies they can draw on? Or do they have a finite source of them? Between 1978 and 1984, Bruce officially released 5 single vinyl albums worth of material. Since then, from that same period we have a double CD of 1978 material (so another 2 if not 3 single vinyl albums worth), 20 or so 1980 out-takes (at least 2 more single albums), from 1982-84 we have at least a single vinyl album of out-takes on Tracks with at least the same amount still unreleased. So that's somewhere in the range of a dozen single vinyl albums worth of amazing songs in a six year period. The dude fired a lot of shots in that time, if he only has a finite source of ammo is it any wonder things have slowed down now?
Anyway, interested to know where others stand on this. Upshot for me is I'm happy and glad to hear any Bruce tune I've never heard before, regardless of whether he just wrote it or if he's sat on it for a while and is now choosing to share it.
And, to be fair, if we accept the new info from Brucebase at face value, we only know that original demos or versions of OMYH, Rainmaker and Burning Train were worked on earlier without knowing what was added more recently. Certainly lyrically Rainmaker to me sounds more applicable to the current zeitgeist than even the Dubbya period in which it purportedly first appeared... I suspect some more recent lyrical tweaks at least on this one. One Minute also seems a piece with the new songs... to the extent I suspect some more recent writing on this one occurred also.
If he wrote six of those songs in a burst last year, I don't think what he said about it amounts to a bunch of BS.
He may also have written more than the songs he recorded and released. He usually does.
As far as Bruce running dry, a lot of people thought he ran out of gas in the 90s. And we all know how right they were. But let's say he's really coming to the end of the line. So what? He's already way, way past his expiration date. How many rock music composers can match him for longevity? How many continued to compose high quality songs well past middle age? Never mind the way he performs them. It's just not a big deal to me.
However. Why the bullshit about having recently written a bunch of new material? It's disappointing. I'm not going to wave my fists at the heavens and and renounce my fandom, but...it's not what I would expect from him.
I really don't care when the tune was written. See to me, Priest, Orphans and Janey are all new songs. I've never heard the recordings before. I just heard Harry's Place is a reject from Magic. My favorite tune on HH.
This whole conversation can go all the way back to the River. I-Day, The Ties That Bind, Sherry Darling and maybe Drive All Night are all Darkness songs/ recordings. BITUSA and Downbound Train are Nebraska recordings.
Was there a big controversy when Tracks was let?
Bruce isn't done writing songs. His well isn't running dry. He's a lifer.
One question, two answers. When I listen to a previously unheard song it doesn't matter when it was written. A good song is a good song. Period. On the other hand, as a fan I would like Bruce to be creative and able to continue writing good or even great songs. If the unheard songs are all written years ago that means the supply of unheard good songs to release will dry out at some point. So, when he's about to make a new album I'd rather have he were still able to sit down and write new relevant, high quality songs, instead of go searching the vaults for songs that weren't good enough or fitting back then but will have to do now.
On a lighter note, I am thrilled to hear Burnin' Train was written in 1993. The mystery is now revealed, it is not about Patti going through menopause, the song is about sex after childbirth. 😊
I don't have any notable concerns about some of the songs on the album being written earlier. I'm one of those 'wanting to know where Bruce stands now' fans, and fortunately, my curiosity got quenched with the few new songs. These songs revealed what has been on his mind lately. The crux is unmistakably evident. I would have been a bit worried had this not been the case, and had the album not included any new material. Mainly because of my perhaps egoistic but enduring interest in his state of mind. The reason is probably my age, as I'm walking the path of life 2,5 decades behind him, and he has sort of been my life guru, my guide, walking ahead of me like a lookout. If he were suddenly going to stop on this path and quit sharing his insights, my walk would be lonelier and more painful. It is slowly getting darker for me too, and I'd love to continue to admire his songwriting talents in the future, provoked by the mystifying farewell and all other burdens of aging.
No I don't care. I think JF makes a very good point about a writer always having a notebook handy and I have read this about numerous authors, who will note down an odd snippet for later use. I am sure a song writer would also frequently be strumming a guitar/playing a few notes on a piano etc for the very same reason. When these ideas come to fruition they are still new to the audience.
To be honest, in this year of disappointment after disappointment to be nitpicking about when certain songs were written just pisses me off - he gave me plenty this year when he could have just hunkered down at his farm with Patty and done nothing for his fans.
I am aware that I see pretty much everything he does through rose tinted specs, but I am a fan on a fan forum - get over it!!
I can actually see why a fan might be concerned about Bruce apparently only having written a half dozen new songs in the past many years, as it does indicate a certain drying up of that famously over-productive well.
For me, context matters. So "My City of Ruins" had its context changed by its placement on The Rising, where it fit perfectly, and it didn't matter that it had been written earlier and for something different. I had never heard "Long Time Comin'" before Devils & Dust, that I could recall, so I don't care that it was 10 years old
So it is with this new album. They're new to me. Yes, as a hardcore fan, I guess I'd be a bit sad if he never wrote again, or if his writing dried up significantly, and there is some evidence of that. But there are worse fates and if there's one thing hardcore Springsteen fans should know by now, it's to never count this guy out.
From a writer's perspective, nothing is old if you haven't used it yet. I have notebooks and files brimming with unfinished stories, outlines, notes and ideas. If I'm lucky, I'll use all the good ones before I die.